The NIU women’s volleyball team split two matches in California over the weekend to advance its season record to 9-7.

The Huskies battled U.S. International Thursday night and posted a hard-earned 15-12, 15-13, 17-15 victory at the M. Larry Lawrence Jewish Community Center in San Diego.

On Saturday night, the Huskies travelled to Irvine and lost to a tough University of California-Irvine squad by scores of 15-4, 15-3, 15-6.

NIU head coach Pete Waite said he was pleased with the weekend’s results and encouraged about his team’s play going into North Star Conference play this week.

“We came out of the weekend with a split overall and we’re happy with that,” Waite said.

Against U.S. International, NIU out-hit the Lady Gulls by a percentage of .339 to .160. The Huskies had 59 kills in 121 attempts with just 18 attacking errors while the Lady Gulls posted 45 kills and 18 errors in 125 attempts.

Leading the Huskies in hitting were Beth Glisk (.471, 11 of 17, three errors), Anita Kesteris (.467, 10 of 15, three errors), and Jamie Steenblock (.455, 7 of 11, two errors). Cathy Holmes led the team in kills with 13 and virtually shut down the Lady Gulls’ biggest offensive threat, Claudia Johnson.

Holmes’ seven solo blocks and four block assists helped hold the 6-foot-1 Johnson to a .147 hitting percentage (14 of 34, nine errors).

“Cathy was blocking head-to-head with Claudia Johnson, who’s really an excellent hitter,” Waite said. “Seven solo blocks tells you she pretty well shut her down.”

On Saturday, the Huskies met up with a solid team on a roll in UC-I. The Anteaters had just come off an upset win over the University of Pacific and were ready and waiting for the Huskies.

“Irvine is definitely the strongest team we’ve faced,” Waite said. “We’ve stressed all along that you have to serve well and pass well. That’s exactly what they did to beat us. Hopefully we can learn from what a good team does.”

What the Anteaters did was control the match with their serving from start to finish. UC-I had a total of 13 service aces to the Huskies’ two.

“Irvine is a really strong serving team and that created problems for us in terms of passing,” Waite said. “When we got the pass up, we had some sideouts, but not enough to really capitalize on for a lot of points.

“Overall, we didn’t play enough sideout ball to chalk up too many statistics,” Waite said. “Cathy Holmes played hard and led us with 10 kills.”

Holmes’ 10 kills and five errors in 22 attempts gave her a hitting percentage of .227. She also led the team in blocks with three solos and two assists. Kesteris was next with three kills and one error in six attempts for a .333 mark.

The Huskies will complete a three-week five-match road trip this Wednesday against Illinois-Chicago. The 7:30 p.m. match will mark the start of the Huskies’ North Star Conference season.