From suffering a sweep to dishing one out. From the worst hitting percentage in a match to the best. All in a matter of hours. A tale of two extremes.
That tale tells the story of NIU volleyball’s first day of action Saturday at the UNI Tournament in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Huskies (2-9) suffered a sweep at the hands of the No. 25-ranked University of Dayton Flyers (10-2) before engineering a midday turnaround that resulted in a sweep of the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks (3-8).
Junior outside hitter Nikolette Nedic said the team’s unity and cooperation played a major factor in Friday’s results.
“Today, our main thing was we played as a team, and, everything we did, we stayed together which we’ve been struggling with in the past,” Nedic said. “But today, we did that and pushed through.”
NIU volleyball head coach Sondra Parys said Friday’s win over North Dakota was the product of a post-loss energy shift and a collective buy-in to becoming a squad that can respond to resistance.
“It’s really exciting to see the fruits of the labor come together, and they believed they could do it and they executed,” Parys said.
A TALE OF TWO OFFENSES
NIU excelled offensively in the opening set of both matches. The Huskies hit .360 against Dayton and .412 against North Dakota – the latter performance giving NIU an early advantage over the Fighting Hawks.
From that point in each match, the Huskies’ hitting results took completely different directions.
The morning match against Dayton saw NIU reduced to negative hitting percentages in the final two frames. The Huskies ended the match with 23 kills on 90 swings for .056 hitting, all season-worst figures.
NIU’s ensuing offensive outing in the evening produced hitting performances of .400 in Set 2 and .375 in Set 3. NIU finished with 39 kills and a season-low five errors on 86 attempts for a season-high .395 hitting.
Parys credited NIU’s low error numbers on the combination of hitters making smart decisions and setters placing sets accurately.
“They were in the right situation to be able to execute, and they had a lot of confidence,” Parys said. “That was something that we really had a good conversation after the match this morning. They approached the North Dakota match with the right mindset, and I think that allowed them to be smart and aggressive at the same time.”
Junior middle blocker Charli Atiemo tallied 14 kills on the day to lead the Huskies. Senior setter Ella Mihacevich topped NIU with 28 assists between both matches, followed by junior setter Sophie Hurt’s 23 assists.
BLOCK PARTY
The Huskies’ front row accounted for 14 total blocks Friday, 10 of those coming from the win over UND. Atiemo led the team with nine blocks on the day.
“You can’t have offense without defense, and it starts there,” Parys said. “We saw what they (North Dakota) were doing early and we told them, our blockers, what to take away, and they made really quick changes.”
DEALING WITH HEADACHES …
The Huskies had their hands full throughout the first match with Dayton’s one-two punch of redshirt juniors outside hitter/libero Lexie Almodovar and middle blocker Alayna Yates. Almodovar earned a double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs along with three service aces, leading the match in all three categories.
Yates logged 11 kills and four block assists while playing in her hometown. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Taylor Russell contributed 10 kills to round out the trio of Flyers that attained double-digit kills.
… TO BECOMING ONE
NIU’s defense played a key role in UND’s offensive struggles. The front row denied 10 attacks from the Fighting Hawks’ side of the net. Though UND out-killed NIU 43-39, the Huskies terminated 45.3% of their attacks while the Fighting Hawks converted 34.68% of their swings into kills.
North Dakota ended the day with 43 kills and 24 errors on 124 attempts, finishing with a hitting percentage of .153.
THE END OF THE OUT-OF-CONFERENCE ROAD
With one match remaining before the start of conference play, NIU remains at the bottom of the MAC standings. The Huskies sit half a game behind Ball State University and Eastern Michigan University.
“I’m excited to have one more shot at non-conference tomorrow,” Atiemo said. “And then we’re starting to focus on BG (Bowling Green State University) as soon as we’re done (and) in the MAC, because we’re going to see similar teams, if not better teams. So I’m really excited for the work that we’re doing right now.”
NIU will finish non-conference play against the hosting University of Northern Iowa Panthers at 2 p.m. Saturday. The match will be broadcasted on ESPN+ and live statistics will be presented by SIDEARM Sports.
