It wasn’t pretty. And NIU head volleyball coach Pete Waite will be the first to admit it wasn’t very much fun. But the women’s volleyball team managed to come away from Valparaiso, Ind., with a five-game North Star Conference victory last night despite a less-than-inspiring performance.

The Huskies improved their overall record to 12-8 (3-1 in the NSC) with a 15-12, 9-15, 17-15, 5-15, 15-6 win that Waite was not pleased with.

“We just have a lot of areas that we need to improve on,” Waite said. “And one of them is challenging the opponent.”

The opponent in this case had the worst record of any foe the Huskies have faced all season. Yet the Valparaiso Crusaders, 3-31 going into last night’s contest, were able to stay in the match until the very end.

Waite got a glimpse of what was to come in the very first game of the match, as Huskie errors continually let Valparaiso remain in the game.

“We let them stay with us, and they found out that they could play with us,” Waite said of the first game. “And they took advantage of that.”

The Huskies were led by sophomore Julie Kreiling, who has been impressive in recent weeks. The 5-foot-9 outside hitter led all players with 30 kills and 13 errors in 43 attempts for a .418 hitting percentage.

Senior Cathy Holmes continued on a hot streak that has led to her fourth NSC Player of the Week honor this season. Holmes had 23 kills and 8 errors in 41 attempts for a .366 hitting mark.

NIU out-killed the Crusaders 95 to 42 but still managed to make the match close because of inconsistency and lack of leadership.

“NIU is a team looking for some leaders on the court,” a despondent Waite said. “We had some players who took (Valparaiso) too lightly. We were lucky to come out with a win.”

Vaparaiso found a leader in freshman outside hitter Lori Barton. The 5-foot-8 Barton spearheaded the Crusader attack with 12 of the team’s 42 kills.

“Vaparaiso played a nice game,” Waite said. “They dug a lot of balls and took it right to us.”

The Huskies led the NSC in five of six team categories going into this week’s play. But to remain at the top, they will have to learn to bury the weak teams instead of letting them stay in the match like they did last night.

“We could have lost (the match) just as easily,” Waite said. “It’s called building character.”

The Huskies have three days to practice before their next match, a 7:30 p.m. showdown with NSC opponent Wisconsin-Green Bay on Friday.