On Halloween, students may be out roaming the streets in full costumes, but for the swimming and diving athletes, their two-day tri-meet in Buffalo, N.Y. will begin.

After falling to Iowa last weekend, the Spartans plan to put up a fight against Buffalo and Army on Friday and Saturday.

“The biggest thing is to definitely improve,” head coach Matt Gianiodis said. “When you can take into consideration how young we are, I really feel as though we’ve really progressed...to the point where all the coaching staff, myself, is happy where we are.”

So far this season, Buffalo has had a promising season, winning 17 of 30 events at the Western New York Invite and defended their Mid-American Conference title over Akron, 155-145. Buffalo finished third in the MAC conference last year.

“Buffalo beat both of us, men’s and women’s team last year, down in Eastern (Michigan). ... The biggest thing is trying to improve on what we did at Iowa,” Gianiodis said. “Same emotional level, physical level, just to try and keep getting a little bit better as we get through the season.”

Army’s women’s team lost to Massachusetts, 168-132, in their first and only meet.

“They got a good team,” Gianiodis said. “Of course, Army is a service academy so I don’t know how you would ever be able to intimidate kids who are athletes in the army. They have good athletes and Buffalo has good athletes, so this will be a good competition.”

The Spartans will take the long drive to Buffalo on Friday, stopping before they arrive at their destination to make “sure the kids can get out of the bus and stretch out,” Gianiodis said. They will compete immediately after travel.

Gianiodis will be back in his hometown this weekend, and is taking the opportunity to see his family and his niece who attends Buffalo.

“I grew up maybe two to three minutes from the campus, so it will be exciting for me to go back home,” Gianiodis said.

The competition begins Friday at 6 p.m. and continues on Saturday at noon.