Volleyball (15-7, 8-0 MAC) reached a perfect eight wins in eight tries with weekend triumphs over Akron and Buffalo.

The victories increased NIU’s lead atop the MAC West standings to two games over Ball State.

Friday, the Huskies took care of the Akron Zips (8-15, 2-6 MAC) in straight sets (25-15, 25-15,25-16), marking the third time NIU has swept a conference opponent this season. It was the Huskies’ first sweep since Sept. 27 when they brushed aside Ball State.

Saturday, in front of a crowd of former players for Alumni Night, NIU had a rougher time putting away the Buffalo Bulls (13-9, 3-5 MAC) but prevailed in four sets (23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-19).

“I’m glad the alums were back. It’s cool to see some familiar faces, and hopefully they feel good about what they saw tonight, and hopefully we did a positive job of display[ing] … volleyball for everybody,” said head coach Ray Gooden.

Akron

The Huskies’ defense was out in full force Friday, holding the Zips’ attack to a -.027 average.

Behind nine blocks and 36 digs, the Huskies held the Akron offense to less than 16 points all three frames.

The Zips had more errors (17) than kills (15) in the Saturday night contest.

“We’ve been really working on defense this past week since we knew they were a defensive team and we’d be playing it out a lot,” said redshirt sophomore Lauren Zielinski. “So, our block really helped the defense out. We [performed] really well, and our defense was really scrappy, and we did great on that.”

The Huskies’ offense did its share of work, finishing the matchup with 42 kills and a .366 attack percentage.

NIU set the tone in all three sets, racing out to 6-1, 5-0 and 3-0 runs, respectively, before the Zips tried to claw their way back in.

The Huskie defense didn’t allow that to happen, especially in the opening set, holding Akron to a -.136 percentage.

Sophomore Jenna Radtke had seven spikes and a career-best .778 attack percentage in the win, while Zielinski also posted a superb percentage, finishing with .583.

Junior setter Alexis “Pookie” Gonzalez came into the conference game tied for third in the MAC in service aces and added to that total, registering four in the three-set win.

“I thought we did a really good job playing team volleyball. I really did,” Gooden said. “Offensively and defensively and again back to our serve. I thought our serve helped us out again.”

Buffalo

Buffalo came into Saturday as one of the MAC East’s offense powers, but NIU was able to hold it in check after starting slow in the first set.

The block party continued against the Bulls as NIU stuffed 10 attacks and totalled 65 digs. The Bulls were ready to rumble in the first set and showed no signs of slowing down, leading by as many as six early on. NIU was able to storm back and get within 24-23, but the Bulls prevailed 25-23 in the first set.

The Huskies got more of a feel of their offense and decreased their number of unforced errors en route to winning three-straight sets and picking up a 3-1 win over Buffalo.

“I thought we got better as the match went on,” Gooden said. “I think in the beginning — Buffalo is a really good team [and] they got a great coach and coaching staff — we just didn’t have the energy that we needed in the beginning. We didn’t give them the full respect we needed to, but as the match went on we got better. That’s always good to see.”

Sophomore outside hitter T’ara Austin set a career-high for the third time this season with 20 kills, while senior outside Mackenzie Roddy added 19 and Radtke had 10.

“… Out of the break I think we came out with a lot of fire and just really good energy,” Roddy said. “We were just looking to get it done, and I think we did a really good job there in the fourth.”