Returning five starters from a 24-9 season, the NIU volleyball team is optimistic about this season, but they face a tough hurdle out of the gates this weekend in the NIU Best Western Invitational at Chick Evans Fieldhouse.

Starting Friday night at 7:00 p.m. against Texas San Antonio, the Huskies have what they didn’t have at this time last year: their health.

“The biggest thing is that we are healthy,” coach Todd Kress said. “We have balance, depth and a lot of versatility with different players that can go in different spots.”

The Huskies face two teams coming off of 20-win seasons in Texas-San Antonio and DePaul (Saturday 8:00 p.m.), who return all of their starters. Their first match Saturday pits them against Creighton, who was picked to place second in the Missouri Valley and returns five starters.

“Coming out of this weekend with a couple of wins would be nice,” Kress said “Three (wins) may be a stretch because I think it’s going to be a tough invitational. I think that anyone coming out of this weekend with three wins is going to have a great year and they are off to a great start.”

With second team All-MAC middle blocker Jen VonderHaar along with MAC and AVCA Mideast Region Freshman of the Year Jenny Bowman leading the way, the Huskies have had a strong offseason, Kress said.

Looking to unleash a new style of play with new tactics, NIU hopes for success.

“It is going to be a different look to our offense,” Kress said. “We are going to try and run a different offense than we have in the past. Three middles could be out there at any one time, switching people into different spots. I think it’ll be exciting depending on how well we run it, but we could be very successful with it.”

The combination of junior middle blockers Rena Widboom and Jen Vonderhaar returning, freshman Daren Poe making her presence felt and senior Sara Lein returning from a torn anterior cruciate ligament bodes well for the Huskies.

“This is probably the toughest opening weekend that we’ve had,” Kress said. “I think it is important for us to get off to a good start, just because we’ve had a good preseason, we’ve practiced well and we’ve went after it well and the expectations are high.”