Volleyball (16-10, 12-2 MAC) took on Toledo and Ball State over the weekend and defeated both teams 3-0, pushing its win streak to five games.

Toledo

The Huskies led the first set 15-8 early on. NIU’s defense had really progressed. Toledo struggled to score for most of the set and couldn’t hold off a second run. The Huskies went on to win 25-11.

Toledo struggled again in the second set and didn’t put up much of an offensive effort. The team never held a lead, allowing a 25-15 NIU win.

The third set was the closest of the three as the Rockets were able to make attempts at a comeback, but eventually fell 25-18.

“I thought handling the first ball that was hit at us was big for us, and we did good job of serving tonight,” said head coach Ray Gooden, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “That really set up our offense for the pace that we like to run. It was good to get that kind of play from all of our areas. If we don’t handle the ball the way we did tonight, it’s not as easy to hit the way we did so credit to our defense to allow us to do some positive things. Pookie [Alexis Gonzalez] did a great job tonight of placing the ball with the team going up in the right spots to attack the ball and minimize Toledo’s blocking.”

Ball State

The Huskies started the game with lots of energy and held an early 16-10 lead Ball State was never able to come back from. NIU went on a run to end the set, taking the 25-14 win.

The second set was much closer than the first one. Ball State fought for a chance to tie the match but couldn’t close the deal, and NIU turned it into another set win 25-20.

The Huskies came into the third set with a chance to sweep their second match of the weekend. They led 17-8 after a close start and pulled away toward the end, winning 25-12.

“Ball State is a great program and a good team,” Gooden said, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “It was nice for us to defend our home court and play some really positive volleyball. I thought we did a great job of slowing them down because they have a potent offense. And for us to continue to hit and play at a high level is a positive thing.”

NIU will move on to play Western Michigan at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Victor E. Court. There are two games remaining in the regular season.