Volleyball put its lone conference loss behind it this weekend, earning a berth in the MAC Tournament

The Huskies (18-8, 11-1 MAC) improved to 7-0 against MAC West opponents after beating the Ball State Cardinals (14-11, 8-4 MAC) Friday in Muncie, Ind. They continued the winning when they took down the Toledo Rockets (1-24, 0-12 MAC) Saturday in Toledo, Ohio.

The Huskies got back to the same winning formula that has helped them be successful all season: a road-warrior mentality, tough defense and serving well.

“I think against Ball State we started off a little slow and then we were able to use our strengths to help us out,” said head coach Ray Gooden. “At Toledo, I thought we had a good start and just tried to maintain it all the way through, but all and all, to get two wins on the road and to have three wins out of four matches here has been real positive for our group.”

Ball State

NIU improved to 2-0 against Ball State this season after going 0-2 against the Cardinals last year.

After losing in the first set, NIU ran off three sets in a row to take the match from Ball State, 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-20). The Huskies’ defense was the story of the match, registering 12 blocks and 68 digs.

“We were really scrappy on defense and not letting balls drop, and our block was setting up for the defense to dig around us,” said Lauren Zielinski, redshirt sophomore middle blocker.

The Cardinals raced to a 7-2 advantage behind three aces in the first set, and they had runs of 4-1 and 3-0 later on in the set to stretch their advantage to 22-15. The Huskies closed the gap with their own 6-3 run, but they couldn’t pull it out, losing 25-21.

After totaling just 11 kills in the first set, the Huskies’ offense collected 16 kills and a .273 attack percentage en route to a 25-19 second-set win.

The third set was a back-and-forth affair with 14 ties and nine lead changes, but the Huskies held on for the win and sealed the victory with a fourth-set win.

The NIU defense held Hayley Benson, 2013 First Team All-MAC honoree, to 11 kills and a .192 hitting percentage and also forced her to commit six errors.

“That was one of our keys to success against those guys, and I thought our team did a really good job of identifying her and not making her a big factor because she’s one of the better players [in] our league,” Gooden said.

Toledo

The Huskies registered 66 kills and a .318 attack percentage against the Rockets, resulting in a 3-1 victory (25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 25-15).

The win put the Huskies at 11-6 in road matches this season.

The Huskies won three of the four sets behind a hot hitting percentage, averaging .389 in their set wins.

“We just kind of focus[ed] on our side because we know once we focus on our side and we play how we want to play that’s when we do great things,” said junior setter Alexis “Pookie” Gonzalez.

The Huskies put pressure on the Rockets with their aces, registering five in the four-set contest. They also did a good job stopping the spike attempts from Toledo, picking up 57 digs, including three Huskies who hit double figures: sophomore defensive specialist Paige Dacanay (12), freshman libero Anna Brereton (12) and senior outside hitter Mackenzie Roddy (10).