Before its football team travels to DeKalb for NIU’s homecoming game, the Western Michigan volleyball team will take on the Huskies Thursday at Victor E. Court.

Despite a rocky season opener at the Chevron Rainbow Wahine Invitational, the Broncos (11-7) have had a fairly successful season thus far. In that first tournament, they took on three ranked schools, including No. 4 ranked Hawaii, No. 14 ranked UCLA and the then No. 25 ranked Santa Clara. Though they were unsuccessful against all three schools, they were able to hold their own through their match against Santa Clara, taking them to five sets.

Even after this less than confidence building experience, the Broncos were able to bounce back. The week after that first tournament, WMU was able to grab itself a second place finish in the Holiday Inn West Bronco Invitational. A few weeks after that, they came in first place for the Indiana Invitational, beating out Indiana, North Carolina A&T and Alabama A&M.

“[Last season] We lost to them early at their place, but then we took them to all five sets at home,” NIU head coach Ray Gooden said. “We pushed them to the limit at our place.”

There is not one hero of the team responsible for the Bronco’s success. Each player brings something to the table. For the last four weeks in a row, a player from the Western Michigan volleyball team has taken home one of the MAC weekly awards.

Allyson Doyle, Caitlin Strimel and Jaime Gotham have each received the award for best defensive player of the week. Also, Michelle Moore and Jessica Brown have been recognized, each receiving best offensive player of the week.

The Broncos have been on fire in recent games, coming into their game against NIU on a six–game winning streak.

“We’re playing the preseason number one pick,” Gooden said. “We know it, so we’re going to have to play our best in order to challenge them.”

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