A strong hitting game, key substitutions and a little consistency is all the NIU volleyball team needed to capture its first conference victory Saturday night over the Vikings of Cleveland State University at Ohio.

The 3-1 North Star Conference victory puts the Huskies at 1-2 in conference play and 6-15 overall. NIU dropped the first game to the Vikings 11-15, but Huskie Coach Pete Waite shuffled the line-up for the second game and his team responded with a 15-9, 15-10 and 15-5 drubbing of CSU.

“I rotated the line-up and they played well,” Waite said. “Andrea Baker came in and did a nice job in the last three games.”

NIU opened the weekend with a straight-game loss at the University of Akron. The Huskies hit a conference season-best .278 against Akron behind the efforts of senior Julie Kreiling and freshman Wendy Mason. Kreiling nailed 14 kills on a career-best .542 attack percentage while Mason added 12 kills on a .296 attack. They had 23 and 15 kills, respectively, versus Cleveland State. Jamie Steenblock added 17 kills against the Vikings.

“We had our fewest serving errors of the season (against Akron),” Waite said. “They simply outplayed us.”

In the Saturday contest, the Huskies battled one of the top teams in the NSC and the NCAA Division I’s national blocking leaders in Belinda Johnson. NIU successfully diverted its attack away from Johnson, aiming away from the front line.

“We were able to follow the solid hitting of the Akron match with a strong, consistent all-around game at Cleveland State,” Waite said. “It was a good conference win and it will help us when it’s seeding time for the NSC tournament.”

Now the Huskies are focusing their attention on another conference opponent, the Crusaders from Valparaiso, who head into DeKalb at 7 o’clock tonight winless in their first two North Star Conference matches and a 4-16 overall record. The Crusaders sport another one of the leading blockers in the nation in frontliner Beth Hendricks. NIU holds a 8-0-0 series record over Valpo.

“We went down there last year and it took us all five games to beat them,” Waite said. “They are a scrappy team and we always expect a fight from them.”

Waite expects a good showing from his spikers, who he says are getting better every day despite the continued absence of their leading hitter Kari Niesen.

“Kari is starting to come back,” Waite said. “Her replacements are playing very well also. We are getting better and better everyday.”