Use assertion on a one-way SOAP request?

I am cleaning up some test cases in one of our existing SoapUI projects and came across some Groovy code like this:

def response = testRunner.testCase.testSteps["Request"].testRequest.response.getRequest().getResponseContentAsXml()

assert response == null



My questions - Can I use an assertion to accomplish the same thing? If so, how?



Thanks in advance for your help.



-Tony