It was a weekend of nail-biting, come-from-behind victories that created the perfect ending to an already successful season for the NIU volleyball squad. But as far as head volleyball coach Pete Waite and his team are concerned, it’s only the beginning.

First and foremost, the Huskies grabbed the North Star Conference co-champion postition and the No. 1 seed for the NSC post-season championship tourney Nov. 17-18 by defeating Depaul University Friday. It was a match that went down to the wire, but NIU came out on top 16-14, 15-13, 13-15, 10-15, 16-14.

NIU came from behind in the first game trailing 12-5 before rallying to a 16-14 triumph that was followed by a 15-13 win. DePaul then won the next two games and with everything on the line in the fifth game, the Huskies managed to come back from a 14-10 deficit to win 16-14.

NIU used its usual team effort to capture the win with senior Kari Niesen and freshman Becky Ramsey posting team high of 19 kills, while Nikki Kosak contributed 11 kills of her own.

Defensively, five players had digs in the double-figures. Ramsey led the team with 21 digs, while Amy VanderMeer and Kozak had 19. Shauna Campbell and Niesen rounded out the figures with an additional 18 digs each. The Huskies also had four solo blocks plus 31 block assists compared to DU’s 14 block assists.

“No matter who would have won, this was a great match. Obviously, I’m very glad we won it, but I was very proud of the way we played,” Waite said. “Defense was a big part of the match. We had 117 digs and they had 119. Obviously, there were a lot of sideouts.”

An additional boost to the team was the return of senior Julie Kreiling-Zinke and freshman power hitter Kori Schauer who recently have been sidelined because of injuries. The pair were back in time to see NIU finish their NSC record with a 6-1 standing that ties DU for the No. 1 spot in the conference.

Understandably, the Huskies had a little trouble starting up against a tough George Mason squad on Saturday as GMU jumped to a 7-0 lead in the first game. NIU battled back however, and defeated the Patriots 15-10, 15-12, 15-8.

“George Mason has some great athletes on that team. They came out and stuck it right to us and woke us up a little,” Waite said. “That’s a nice thing to see we’re so competitive that once we know we’ve got to play tough, we get going.”

Again, Niesen headed the offense with a .471 hitting efficiency with 10 kills against two errors in 17 attempts. Schauer was back in true form with nine crushes, and Kozac led the defense with seven digs.

The win puts NIU’s regular season record at 24-7 with a week of preparation for the NSC tournament. The winner of that tournament receives an automatic bid to the Women’s Invitational Volleyball Championship set for Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 at the University of Tennessee.

As a senior, Niesen has mixed feelings about the end to regular season play and her last performance at home.

“It was sad playing my last home game, but we still have next weekend left and we’re hoping to go on from there,” Niesen said. “Hopefully, it’s not over yet.”