The SIUC volleyball team will be seeing red when it hosts conference rivals Illinois State University and Bradley University this weekend.

The spikers, who were swept on the road last week by Northern Iowa and Drake, return home to Davies Gymnasium with a 6-2 record in the Missouri Valley Conference.

SIUC’s match against ISU tonight will determine who gets sole possession of third place in the Valley.

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At 5-2, ISU heads into Carbondale dominating the series between the two rivals. The spikers have dropped seven straight matches to the Redbirds and have not beaten them at home since 1981.

SIUC coach Sonya Locke, said her team must be solid on both offense and defense in order to steal a win from ISU.

It’s going to take a lot of consistency on our offense,Lock said. We need to pass really well. We also have to have good blocking on our defense. ISU has some very good hitters on their team.

ISU’s Andi Hardwick, last week’s MVC Player of the Week, is one of those good hitters. In four matches last week, she hit .569 with 63 kills.

Locke said Hardwick will not be the center of focus for the Salukis, however.

Locke said SIUC will have to focus on ISU’s entire team because they are a well rounded team, made up of many talented players.

SIUC has a 4-0 record in Davies Gymnasium so far this season. Last year, the spikers won their first nine matches at home.

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Although SIUC has the opportunity to play ISU at home in their first meeting of the season, Locke said that does not set her mind at ease. She said the outcome of this weekend may well be a determining factor as to how the rest of the season turns out.

There is no comfortable position to be in at this point in the season, she said. There is no comfort zone at all.

Locke said SIUC may finish at either 8-2 or 7-3 this weekend and still be in good shape in the Valley, but finishing the weekend at 6-4 would not be good at all.

SIUC will face Bradley on Saturday night. Bradley has swept the Salukis the last two seasons. At 2-5, the Lady Braves are ninth in the Valley. Bradley was picked No. 4 in the coaches preseason poll, two picks ahead of SIUC. Tonight, Bradley faces Evansville before coming to Carbondale.

Locke said the team has been practicing hard all week to prepare for this weekend’s matches and her squad is well aware of what it needs to do to win.

All of our practices have been intense, Locke said. This week we have been isolating areas that we need to get better at.

I don’t need to tell the team what they need to do this weekend. They know what is going on and they know what to do.