In back-to-back matches, the Huskies have gone five sets with the end result being a win. After beating MAC West rival Western Michigan (12-5, 3-1 MAC) on Thursday, the Huskies traveled to Ohio on Sunday for a cross-division match-up against Miami (OH) (6-11, 1-3).

In a first set of back-and-forth scoring, with 12 tie scores and six lead changes, the Huskies (17-2, 3-1) fell short, losing 22-25. The beginning of the second set was much the same, allowing the RedHawks to take a 6-2 lead. After a timeout, the Huskies would go on an 8-1 run and eventually take the second 25-16.

While the first set earned the Huskies a hitting percentage of .176 and 11 kills, the second set finished with a .364 and 16 kills.

“We weren’t able to get things going,” said NIU head coach Ray Gooden. “Credit Miami for coming out pretty strong against us. We weren’t able to establish anything the entire first set. Second set we came out, did what we needed to do.”

After the break, the Redhawks came out ready to play and continued to put a wrench in NIU’s plans.

“They were a really good serving team, put us under pressure,” said junior setter Kristin Hoffman. “They were tracking our outsides at times, with two blockers. Their defense was doing a good job of picking up our really big swings we thought were going to score. We had to mix up our game plan a little bit, hit the ball with different shots and keep it away from their defenders.”

Dropping the third set 21-25, the Huskies refused to go away quietly. From the first kill in the fourth set by sophomore outside hitter Meghan Romo, the Huskies would not again lose the lead. With only one tie score in each of the fourth and fifth sets (25-18, 15-9), NIU kept balance with the offense.

“Across the board we want to have it be our game plan to spread the offense to all of our hitters,” Hoffman said. “At any given point, any one of them can dominate games…keep it balanced; don’t rely on one person to get the big kill every time.”

Four Huskies finished with double-digit kills, including freshman outside hitter Lauren Wicinski who led the team with 18 kills. Assisting most of the kills was Hoffman, who led the team in offensive and defensive categories. Hoffman finished with 51 assists, three service aces, five block assists and 19 digs.

Her performance, statistically, was well-balanced, but her leadership on the court had even greater impact, according to Gooden.

“[Hoffman] helped us stabilize ourselves as the match went on,” he said. “We weren’t able to get into a good rhythm from the get-go, but I really think she helped us, along with some of our other players, of being able to settle down and get ourselves going through the end.”