Cheers were let out as the NIU volleyball team found out where it was headed in the NCAA Tournament Monday.

It did not take long into the NCAA selection show, as the Huskies were announced only four matches into the show, heading to No. 17 Northern Iowa for a 5:30 p.m. matchup on Friday at the West Gym in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

“It was very exciting to watch the pairing come up,” said Huskie coach Todd Kress. “It kind of caught me off guard because you usually watch and wait and wait for your name to come up and we were right there in the opening bracket.”

The Panthers (29-1, 17-1 Missouri Valley) defeated Southwest Missouri State in the Missouri Valley Conference Championship in five games, receiving the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies defeated Ball State in three games to win the MAC championship and the automatic bid.

Northern Iowa owns the nation’s longest home-court winning streak at 46 matches, which ranks 10th in NCAA history. The Panthers rank 15th nationally in attendance with 1,549 fans per game, including 14 straight crowds over 1,000 and a pair of sellouts earlier this season.

“We need to pack the West Gym,” said UNI coach Bobbi Peterson. “I don’t have any doubts we’re going to do it … but there’s nothing better than playing in the West Gym, and now three more teams are going to understand that.”

For Carrie Blankenship, this means a trip home to Iowa. Blankenship comes from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, roughly an hour away from Cedar Falls.

Blankenship was on club teams with some of the players on the Panthers, and was even recruited by Northern Iowa. Blankenship said she probably would not have received a scholarship, but would have had to walk onto Northern Iowa’s roster.

“I knew there was going to be a possibility,” the senior said. “I played with a lot of those girls when we played on the same club teams. It is going to be interesting to see them on the other side of the net. This one is a huge one for me.”

Originally, the first round of the NCAA Tournament was going to be played on Saturday with a start time of 6 p.m., all depending on if Northern Iowa’s football team would host the first round of the Division I-AA tournament.

Since the football team is on the road for the opening round, the volleyball tournament was moved to Friday, with the Huskies going up against the Panthers at 5:30 p.m. DePaul and Minnesota will face off at 7 p.m. Friday. The winner of the two matches will face off on Saturday at 6 p.m.

“Northern Illinois is having a great season,” Peterson said. “They started out a little bit slow but they’ve won 18 of their last 19 matches and they absolutely killed Ball State in their conference tournament last weekend. They’re a strong team and we’ll have to do a lot to get prepared for them in the next couple days.”