After working hard and preparing for their match-up today against Big Ten foe Iowa, the NIU volleyball team was ready for anything — except for this.

On Tuesday morning when hijackers took control and crashed four planes, everything came into perspective for the Huskies.

“This is a day of mourning for our country and friends and family,” said coach Todd Kress. “It’s a horrible tragedy, and I couldn’t imagine going out and taking the court and playing tonight.”

With the Huskies game being postponed until a later date — that has yet to be announced — everyone was in agreement that it was the appropriate action to be made.

The team held practice in place of their scheduled game and before practice, the team took notice of this terrible event.

“It’s, like, the biggest disaster in American History,” said sophomore transfer Brooke Dodson. “It is putting Pearl Harbor to shame.”

While all the players are from the Midwest or the West Coast, this matter touched home with a certain few, including Kress who lived on the East Coast for four years in Connecticut.

“I lived on the East Coast for four years in Connecticut, and I’ve got friends in New York City,” Kress said. “A good friend of mine works only a block and a half away [from the Trade Center] so I’ve been trying to get a hold of her, but I can’t reach her.

“I think when there is such a tragedy like this it affects so many people across the country.”

Senior middle blocker Sara Lein worries about her cousins, aunts and uncles who all stay in New York and she hasn’t heard from.

“Sara has an uncle who is a pilot for American Airlines, fortunately he wasn’t involved with any of the four flights,” Kress said. “My wife was a flight attendant for American Airlines for two years and knows a lot of the flight attendants who were stationed in Boston and so I’m certain, although we can’t find out for sure, but she could’ve lost a friend in this whole mess. Something like this affects a lot of people.”

Besides the volleyball game, other NIU games could be canceled for the rest of the week. The Atlantic Coast Conference is mulling thoughts on canceling all games this weekend, meaning the NIU-Wake Forest game could be canceled.

Cary Groth, NIU athletics director, said the Mid-American Conference will hold a conference call with all the ADs at 8 a.m. about this weekend’s scheduled events. Nothing has been set in stone for the MAC, except for the Ohio-North Carolina State game, which has been canceled.

There will also be a conference call of all the commissioners of Division I-A scheduled at noon today to talk about the weekend’s games.

“What we are trying to do is to look at all our options” Groth said. “I have a call with the Wake Forest AD tomorrow to see what we should do.”

But Groth doesn’t know what is the best thing to do.

“I really don’t know,” she said. “Considering most of these programs have to fly to these games, we have to look at the safety of our players and the safety of the community. We should either cancel all games or play all games.”