On the road or at home for the first round of volleyball’s MAC Tournament?

NIU will find out the answer when it hosts Toledo at 7 p.m. today and Bowling Green at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“If we win both matches this weekend, it will put us in a pretty good spot to host,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “If not, we’re going to have to take our show on the road and work really hard to win that first match.”

Gooden said Toledo has two solid middles and a solid outside hitter. He said his team needs to do a better job stopping their middles from the last time they played.

NIU has won one game combined against Toledo and Bowling Green. In their first meeting, Toledo swept the Huskies, while BGSU won 3-1.

“Coming off of two matches and not having to travel seven hours in a bus would be huge,” sophomore setter Marie Zidek said. “If we can pull out these two and host on Tuesday, we’ll be in really good shape.”

Record being caught

NIU junior outside hitter Tera Lobdell has 433 kills this season., which puts her fifth all-time on the Huskies’ single-season kill list.

Lobdell needs 43 kills to break the single-season record. Assistant coach Tenisha Wilkins is the current record-holder with 476 kills.

Lobdell is second on the Huskies single-season list in kills per game with an average of 4.33 kpg.

“I think that this is great for Tera because she stepped up and played the role as terminator for us,” Gooden said. “Throughout the year she has been really consistent with that.”

Guide close to record books

Lobdell isn’t the only one catching people in the record books. Freshman libero Gina Guide is on pace to finish with the third highest digs-per-game average in NIU history.

Guide is averaging 3.54 dpg. Nikki Kozak (1991 and ’93) is first and second on the list. Guide has a shot at taking over the No. 2 spot. Kozak averaged 3.57 dpg that season.

“She is proving that she can be a great defender here,” Gooden said. “She is proving that with her stats and with her play. That’s a great honor to be in that company that she’s in.”

New face(s) for next season

The Huskies signed one recruit on Thursday and are close to signing another.

NIU already has signed 5-foot-11 Amy Ward from Sycamore.

“She’s an extremely talented local player that can bring us more athleticism,” Gooden said. “She also brings a presence to the net and she has great floor skills.”

The Huskies also have someone else signed, but are waiting for paperwork to go through before they can release the information. Gooden said she is from Illinois and is a middle blocker who is going to play the outside hitter position in college.