Sept. 1 was the last — and only time — the NIU volleyball team lost a home game this season. Almost three months later, NIU is all the more excited about obtaining home-court advantage throughout the MAC conference tournament.

The Huskies have accumulated a 13-1 record in the friendly confines of Chick Evans Field House this season and are an unblemished 9-0 against conference foes.

“The community support and the student and student athlete support here the past four or five matches here has been tremendous,” said NIU coach Todd Kress. “We have had over 700 people, and I predict and hope that we will have over 1,000 people in here. I hope that it is rowdy and ruckus and there is a lot of noise in here with the band.”

However, while this is the playoffs and a lot is at stake, there are two negatives against the field house packing in Kress’ magic 1,000 people.

Normally, the price of admission to volleyball games is free for students. But with this the playoffs, there will be a charge of $2 for students and $4 for all others.

As well, with this being a holiday weekend, many NIU students are expected to go home until Sunday.

“Friday and Saturday I think will be the same as usual,” said Kress. “I know it’s Thanksgiving weekend, and I know a lot of families are going to be out of town, but I think also people like to watch winning volleyball and like to watch our program and our kids are exciting to watch so I hope that those people come out on Friday and Saturday.”

With the quarterfinals set for today at 7 p.m., the semifinals (assuming NIU continues to win) marked down for Friday and the finals to be played on Saturday, will the field house continue to be loud and electric, or will it be quiet and serene?