This weekend could be your chance to see some hard hitting-action. No, not the monster truck rally, but the NIU women’s and men’s tennis teams at the Student Recreation Center.

The Lady Huskies (2-2) begin at 1 p.m. Saturday against Western Illinois and will not host another home meet at the Rec all season, as they play their home meets in either Rockford or Aurora.

The NIU men (2-3) travel downstate Saturday to take on Illinois State, then return home for a meet against Bradley at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Rec.

For the women, coach Laura Scott will lay out Dog Pound and NIU tennis T-shirts on the court in between the doubles and singles matches, and anyone who is around will have a chance to hit one and try and win it.

“Mentally it’s a big thing because you have more pride when you play at home,” sophomore Cassie Drake said. “You don’t want people to beat you at home.”

Both the Huskies and WIU have something to shoot for this weekend. The Leathernecks will be playing their first meet of the season, while NIU is heading into a stretch of six meets in three weeks. As coach Scott notes, the Huskies can’t take WIU for granted.

The men, after going 0-3 against Big Ten opponents, are looking forward to their back-to-back meets.

Senior Raymond VanWasbeek and junior Aaron Forsberg will look to improve on their 4-1 doubles record so far this season.

The Huskies also will be looking to see if sophomore Willy Gali from Spain can build off his first win of the season. Gali, competing in his first meet of the season, beat Tom Heidenberger of University of Wisconsin-Green Bay 6-4, 6-2.