AKRON, Ohio - As the regular season comes to a close, the University of Akron swimming and diving team (5-6-1, 1-4-1 MAC) takes to the road looking for a winning record for the season when it faces off with the Toledo Rockets (5-4-1, 2-3-1 MAC) on February 4 at the UT Student Recreation Center in Toledo, Ohio.

The meet is set to begin at 1 p.m. EST and is the final meet for both teams heading into the 2006 Mid-American Conference Swimming and Diving Championships. This year's league title will be decided at Akron's Ocasek Natatorium on February 23-25.

"This is the most important time of the year," Akron head coach Brian Vereb said. "This is the final dress rehearsal for the big show and we want to make sure that we are ready. We want a very good showing in this meet and we want to make sure our competition habits and race plans are in place before going into the conference meet."

With a victory on Saturday, the Zips would secure their third-consecutive winning season and their fourth winning season in the last five years. Akron finished last season 8-6-1 (.567) while posting records of 16-6 (.727) in 2003-04, 8-8 (.500) in 2002-03 and 7-6 (.538) in 2001-02.

Both squads are in the middle of winless streaks, with the Zips going 0-3-1 over their last four competitions and the Rockets dropping their last two games.

"Toledo is a very talented squad and we are very excited about how the swimmers are going to react with the season on the line," Vereb said. "There are a lot of good match-ups in this meet and I think it should prove to be a good test going into the MAC meet."

Last season, Akron fell 130-113 to Toledo on January 28 at Ocasek Natatorium. The loss snapped a then 10-meet home undefeated streak that saw the Zips go 9-0-1. The meet went down to the final events, with the Rockets sealing the victory in the 800 freestyle relay.