For the first time this year, the NIU volleyball team will turn its attention to the road after defeating Bradley in straight sets at Victor E. Court on Tuesday.

The Huskies thought it was necessary to finish off their nine-match home stretch in a positive manner. They will have their first road game of the year against Virginia Tech on Friday.

“This match was really important,” junior middle blocker Megan Markowski said. “We really stressed working hard to finish up the last home match. We wanted to go into these next road trips with really strong efforts and a lot of intensity.”

Following two matches at the Virginia Tech Fall Invitational, NIU (8-1) will face Ball State and Miami (Ohio) on the road in the next two weeks.

Winning the last home match before heading on the road was very important to NIU coach Ray Gooden, but he did have one concern.

“I was nervous coming into the match because we were really beat up after this weekend,” Gooden said.

Even though the Huskies are 8-1 at home, they are unsure what the road holds for them.

“We talked after the match about taking all this energy to our next match,” Gooden said. “We are going to need this type of energy, but more so as a group. We’re not going to have the crowd support, the band, anything. We’re going to work real hard to steal some games on the road.”