The volleyball team did not overcome one of its worst offensive showings of the 2018 campaign during its Mid-American Conference Volleyball Championship first round matchup versus Ohio University.

The Huskies (11-21, 9-7 MAC) were swept by the Bobcats (15-25, 14-25, 30-32) to bring their season to an end Thursday in Oxford, Ohio.

NIU recorded their second-lowest hitting percentage of the season against the Bobcats, who ranked third in blocks and fifth in digs per set in conference play during the regular season. The Huskies tallied 28 kills, which is tied for their third lowest kill total for the season.

Head Coach Ray Gooden said Ohio did a good job of putting pressure on the Huskies and taking them out of what they wanted to do offensively.

“They won a lot of tough rallies and played really hard and aggressive,” Gooden said. “The first two sets we really weren’t ourselves at all. In the third, I thought we battled, but we just couldn’t turn it and they ended up finishing it up. That part was disappointing.”

Ohio dominated the early parts of the match by opening the first set with six consecutive points. Junior middle blocker Brinley Milbrath notched two back-to-back kills to give the Huskies their first points of the match before a Bobcats attack error brought NIU’s deficit down to 6-3.

Two successive Ohio errors brought its lead down to 7-5 before it went on a 12-3 run to go up 19-8.

A senior middle blocker Meg Wolowicz kill and service ace, along with a Milbrath kill brought the Huskies’ deficit down to eight. NIU did not cut deeper into the Bobcats’ advantage, as Ohio closed out the set with back-to-back kills to take a 25-15 set victory.

The Bobcats scored six of the first eight points to open the second set. The two teams traded off points to a 12-8 Ohio advantage before the Bobcats went on a 10-1 run aided by four Ohio sophomore middle blocker Tia Jimerson kills to take a commanding 22-9 lead.

NIU scored off the ensuing seven points, but Ohio knocked down the set-deciding kill to take a 2-0 set advantage. The Huskies hit a combined -.014 in the first two sets and recorded more errors than kills.

Gooden said a lack of rhythm and aggressiveness was to blame for NIU’s offensive struggles in the first two sets.

“They were scoring points in chunks,” Gooden said. “And that’s really one of the recipes for failure, but given that said we still came out in that third set and really started to play. And literally just missed an opportunity here and there to take it to a fourth set.”

The Huskies played the Bobcats to a 6-6 tie after two sophomore outside hitter Jori Radtke kills and a Wolowicz kill.

Ohio broke the tie with three successive points to go up 9-6. NIU re-tied the set at 15 after a freshman setter Grace Balensiefer kill, but the Bobcats used five kills to jumpstart a 6-1 run to take a 21-16 lead.

Ohio set up a match point with a 24-20 advantage after tallying a kill, but a Wolowicz and a redshirt senior middle blocker Chrystal McAlpin kill aided NIU in scoring five consecutive points to give the Huskies their first lead of the match with a 25-24 advantage.

The teams exchanged points to a 30-30 tie. The Bobcats scored the next point before Ohio senior right sider Stephanie Olman notched the kill that gave the Bobcats the match sweep and ended the Huskies 2018 campaign.

“We for sure had more rhythm [in the third set] and we were winning tough plays,” Gooden said. “We were making those plays and it was awesome. It was what we wanted to see out of that match. I give credit to our group for still fighting the fight. We could’ve rolled over, but we kept fighting and that’s been our group’s thing all the time. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize we need to do that from the start as opposed to the end.”

NIU hit .180 in the third set and .068 for the match. Wolowicz recorded a team-high eight kills and four digs in the match.

She was named to the All-MAC First Team for the second consecutive season Wednesday and finished her career with the 18th most kills in NIU volleyball history with 1,143 kills.

We just didn’t have enough tonight. Proud of this group, proud to be a huskie, and forever thankful for the past 4 years. They will be back, I believe it ❤️ https://t.co/KIL9mThY5a

— meg wolowicz (@meg40w) November 16, 2018

McAlpin tallied a team-high four blocks and senior outside hitter Autumn Martin notched a dig in their final match with the team.

Martin served the ball four consecutive times during NIU’s 5-0 run that gave the Huskies their first lead of the match.

“We thank for them for what they’ve done with the program,” Gooden said. “I think they’ve had a chance to not only learn about this program but also about themselves and at times they all had contributions. Hopefully, they realize how special it is to be a Huskie.”

Gooden said the story of the team was the flashes it showed throughout the season.

“This team had flashes of what it could do, how it could play, how it could and all those types of things,” Gooden said. “At the end of the day, I think it’s about us being good to and for each other and we did that in moments as well. Now it’s just a matter of understanding when we get a chance we got to take advantage of it and go for it.”