The road through the MAC poses two substantial roadblocks in the NIU women’s basketball team’s way for its next two games.

As both are away games, the mini road trip begins today at Western Michigan and finishes Saturday at Kent State.

NIU (5-8, 1-1 MAC) will look to earn its first MAC road win of the season, after falling in its first attempt to Ball State 74-71 on Jan. 8.

“It’s always harder to win on the road,” junior forward Kim Boeding said. “You have the crowd against you, and the refs never really go your way. You have to focus and there is a lot more preparation.”

The Huskies first opponent, Western Michigan (8-4, 2-0 MAC), brings a lot of size that could be difficult for NIU to match up with.

The Broncos are led by first-team All-MAC forward Kristin Koetsier. The 6-foot-3 Koetsier is not only as tall as any NIU player, but comes into the game averaging 18.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.

“Our post [players] are smaller than most teams,” Boeding said. “We played Wisconsin and Northern Iowa; we’re used to it now, and we just go in and do our own thing.”

The Broncos also have Casey Rost, a sophomore guard who leads the team in scoring with 19.3 points along with 5.6 rebounds and 2.6 steals. Rost was last year’s MAC Freshman of the Year.

Following Western Michigan, NIU will travel to Kent, Ohio, to battle defending MAC Champion Kent State (7-7, 2-1 MAC). Kent State’s only MAC loss of the season came at the hands of Western Michigan 73-58 on Jan. 8.

Kent State has won 20 or more games for six straight seasons. This year should be more difficult, however, with the loss of first team All-MAC guard Kate Miller who graduated and second team All-MAC center Zndrea Csaszar, who was lost after tearing her ACL last summer playing in her native Hungary.

“Kent’s always a big rival,” Boeding said. “They always have a good team and we never have much luck when we go there. We’re definitely looking to knock them off this year.”

Kent State is led by senior forward Jamie Rubis and guard Valerie Zona. Neither packs the firepower of Koetsier or Rost, but can still score with 14.9 and 14.4 points, respectively.

The road trip marks just the second of the season. Nov. 25-30, the team made a West Coast trip taking on Arizona State, Montana State and San Jose State. The Huskies finished 1-3 with a win over San Jose State.