With only seven matches left in the season, the NIU volleyball team is still trying to figure out who they are.

And with the team heading to Normal to take on rival Illinois State at 7 p.m. today, NIU must try and figure it out fast.

“I don’t know where we’re at right now and I don’t know if anyone knows,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said.

The Huskies (8-16) thought they were forming an identity after beating Eastern Michigan last Wednesday, but two losses over the weekend put the question marks right back in their heads, Gooden said.

But, Gooden said, records don’t matter anymore to this team. It comes down to who plays better on that night and tonight, in a rivalry match, Gooden is hoping his team finally makes their move.

“We know how big this match is,” setter Marie Zidek said. “The rivalry has been building the past few years because they’re all state girls that we have been playing against our whole lives.”

But the rivalry has been a bit lopsided, as of late, in favor of ISU (15-6). The last time NIU won was in 2001 and it was in five games.

The Redbirds are also 9-0 at home this season, making NIU’s coming-out party a little bit harder to achieve.

The last time NIU got the upper hand on its rival, the Huskies were led by 25 kills from then-freshman Tera Lobdell. Now a senior, Lobdell has led the team in kills the past three meetings, but it will take more than just the “Tera Lobdell Show” to beat ISU, Gooden said.

In the losses over the weekend, Lobdell was the only Huskie to reach double digits in kills. Zidek said the team will need more offense to try and take down the Redbirds.

“We can’t do what we did over the weekend again,” Zidek said. “I need to put our hitters in a better place and they have to put it down. Right now, we really don’t know who we are, but that can be scary for other teams because they know that when we are on, we can beat anybody.”