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Mike Greene | Northern Star
Maddie Hughes digs for a ball in Friday night's loss to Ball State at Victor E. Court in the Convocation Center.
Huskies fall to Ball State, but shut down Toledo
With the color pink mixed into the stands, the NIU volleyball team pulled out a much needed win Saturday and salvaged a 1-1 weekend.
The Huskies (11-9, 3-3) fell apart on Friday night to Ball State in five sets 25-17, 28-30, 25-21, 19-25, 13-15 for only their second home loss of the year.
“We were unable to make that play tonight and you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Ball State,” said NIU head coach Ray Gooden. “They stayed composed and they were able to come back.”
The loss put NIU at 0-3 on the season in five set matches.
“We’ve got to do a better job finishing,” Gooden said. “We didn’t do as well as we needed to in critical situations and Ball State took advantage of it.”
The Huskies made nine fewer hitting errors, four fewer serving errors, and were more accurate, but couldn’t make the needed play to make a run.
Middle blocker Cassie Yates led the NIU attack with 18 kills and a .351 hitting percentage.
After a win in set one, NIU failed on three set points in a tough second set. The two teams split the next two sets and the match came down to a final fifth set.
The Huskies breezed to a 9-2 lead, but found a way to let the win get away. The collapse was eventually capped off with a combination of 6 NIU errors and the inability to make a play.
“We had the momentum in the fifth game and they came back and we just couldn’t make that play to seal the game,” Gooden said.
On Saturday, the Huskies looked to forget the night before and did with a win against Toledo in straight sets 25-23, 25-22, 25-20.
“It was really good for our group to come back and do the things that we know that we can do against a really tough Toledo team,” Gooden said. “It was nice for us to play good, solid volleyball consistently for the entire night.”
The Rockets are the best serving team in the conference, but it didn’t look that way on Saturday night. NIU appeared as the better serving team with five aces and three errors compared to Toledo’s two aces and 10 errors.
“Toledo is really aggressive at the serving line and sometimes they can serve themselves into matches and sometimes they can serve themselves out of matches,” said Gooden. “We were just able to be consistent and continue to put pressure on them, which we’ve been trying to do all year.”
Outside hitter Meagan Schoenrock fronted the Huskie attack with 17 kills, bringing her double digit kills streak to 22 matches.
With the crowd in pink, even Gooden sported the color in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend.
“No lie, but I had to go out and buy [pink shirts],” Gooden said. “The funny thing is that I didn’t have pink in my closet and then it took me forever to try and find pink in my size.”
» Next Sports Article: Huskies improve to 7-3-4 on year with two MAC weekend victories