As the volleyball season winds down for NIU, the squad is basically working on refining its skills for the Saturday match against the Georgia Bulldogs at Athens, Ga.

“This is the time of the year when the players don’t want to spend as much time in the gym,” coach Herb Summers said. “We only practiced for one-and-a-half hours on Wednesday.”

The main focus of practices are on serve receiving and hitting. Those were two big problems the Huskies had in Tuesday night’s match against Evanston. NIU’s hitting percentage was .109, while the Wildcats recorded a .305 clip. One specific hitting drill was used to keep the players intense under pressure.

“We had to get 15 kills in a row without hitting the ball into the net or hitting it out-of-bounds,” Amy Garrett said. “I think he (Summers) wanted us to keep aggressive and get us performing in tight spots.”

Summers said his squad is a little frustrated after the Northwestern loss. He said he has been trying different strategies after losing Kari Niesen.

“I think we’ve tried to make adjustments to give flexibility,” Summers said. “Losing Kari left a hole. Not everyone is the all-around player she is.

“One of our strengths is that we have many people who can play, but it is just a matter of them going out and using it.”

Strength is one virtue for the Bulldogs. NIU played Georgia last year and lost in three games. Georgia, however, lost two top players from last season and is in a rebuilding phase.

The Bulldogs hold an 18-12 record compared to last season’s 33-8 slate. Christa Faris leads the Southeastern Conference in kills with 4.8 attacks-per-game. Jenny McDowell is the team’s better and averages 11.4 sets-per-game.

“The focus of practices has been more on us than on them,” Amy Garrett said. “We are working on what we need to do.”