The Panther volleyball team is traveling on the road this weekend after a 4-1 home-stand at McLeod this past week. UNI has defeated Iowa State, North Dakota State, Northwestern, Syracuse and only lost to Illinois State.

While starting conference play 0-1 isn’t ideal, UNI will be playing beatable teams and have a chance at rebounding to 2-1. Besides  obtaining a more desirable record, UNI will look to get in sync for next weekend’s home games.

The Panthers first opponent is the Southern Illinois Salukis on Friday night. SIU matches UNI’s record at 9-5 exactly. SIU has some impressive losses, staying very competitive, versus top 25 Loyola and Dayton on the same day. It’s very similar to UNI’s Creighton and USC loss.

The one thing they are lacking is quality. Where UNI has Kentucky and ISU, the Salukis will try to add UNI to their belt the same way.  The last deciding advantage would be momentum; UNI is on a three-game winning streak while SIU is on a two-game losing streak.

UNI is on a roll and they will be hoping to stay that way into Homecoming weekend. UNI’s likely to win their first Missouri Valley Conference game of the season three sets to one.

The Panthers will then travel to Evansville on Saturday. The Purple Aces started the season 0-5 and since then will have split their last eight games to be 4-9 at the time of this article. Simply put, the Aces don’t have quality wins except for 3-2 win over Kent State, who is currently 7-6.

That is the only team the Aces have beaten that have a winning record. Evansville will get a chance to improve their record before UNI by facing the 9-5 Drake Bulldogs on Friday.

Regardless of what happens for the Panthers or the Aces on Friday, on Saturday UNI should walk out with a sweep and it wouldn’t be suprising to see a few players hit a double-double or even a 20-20 from one of the more experienced players.

UNI will be looking to walk out of this weekend unscathed and on a five game winning streak, but if nothing else they should collect their first MVC win and 10th overall ranking.

Their next job will be to prepare for some decisive home games at Homecoming, Wichita State and Missouri State.