The NIU volleyball team is looking to use Friday’s victory over Ball State as momentum against MAC West leader Eastern Michigan.

At 7 p.m. today at the Convocation Center’s Victor E. Court, the Huskies face an EMU team (18-4, 6-3 MAC) that has lost three of its last five matches.

“The Eastern Michigan match is just as important, if not more important, than the Ball State match,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “All the teams are the same right now. Every match that we are successful in helps our seeding that much more for the MAC Tournament.”

Junior outside hitter Tera Lobdell is third in the MAC with 4.24 kills per game for the Huskies. Senior outside hitter Brooke Dodson is 11th with 3.45 per game.

Gooden said it’s important to play at home because the crowd does so much for the atmosphere.

Freshman libero Gina Guide said she thinks the team has played better recently, because players are helping each other out more.

“We need to play like we did against Ball State and talk a lot,” Guide said. “We played for each other, more than we did when we were losing. We were getting down and everything like that. We need to stay up, keep talking and push each other through.”

Emily Busch, Jennifer Nighswander and Katie Wagenmaker all average more than three kills per game for EMU.

To slow down the three hitters, NIU will try to serve well and disrupt their offense, Gooden said.