In what was considered an already scary holiday weekend, NIU volleyball’s two losses added to the spookiness.

Continuing their longest road trip of the season, the Huskies (23-4 overall, 9-3 MAC) traveled to Toledo and Ball State, but were unable to notch a win on Friday or Saturday.

NIU head coach Ray Gooden and company added a few more firsts on the season to the list, but not positive ones. Very simply, Gooden says the team needs to go up from this point.

“We had a lot of firsts things this weekend,” Gooden said. “It’s our first back-to-back [losses], our first loss on the road the entire year. Now we got to get ourselves back on track.”

The struggles came early and often on the weekend beginning Friday night against the Rockets (10-13, 5-7).

The Huskies pulled out two extra point sets, 26-24 in each, to kick off the Toledo match, but failed to keep the momentum. NIU went down hard in the third (18-25) and fourth (17-25) sets before battling in the decisive fifth set, coming up short 15-17.

The Rockets outhit (.280-.208) and outkilled (77-64) the Huskies, just as Ball State (20-4, 10-2) would do Saturday night.

The Huskies came into the Ball State match looking for redemption after the Cardinals defeated them at home in the first MAC match on Sept. 24. Redemption never came, and now Ball State stands alone atop the MAC.

“Ball State came in with a lot more confidence, which turned into a lot more control, which turned into a very difficult night for us as a whole,” Gooden said.

The Cardinals benefited from a spread offense, led by freshman outside hitter Kylee Baker’s 12 kills, .545 hitting percentage and 10 digs. Junior middle blocker Kelsey Brandl also garnered 11 kills and a .364 hitting percentage. As a team, the Cardinals limited the Huskies to a .151 hitting percentage with 17 attack errors and 7 service errors.

“I have a lot of respect for the Ball State team,” said NIU junior setter Kristin Hoffman. “They were forcing us into errors and had a really good defense that was frustrating us throughout the night. But we also didn’t really help ourselves out either. We weren’t putting enough pressure on them that we needed in order to be successful.”

A positive note in an otherwise flat weekend happened Friday night when junior outside hitter Allison McGlaughlin notched her 1,000th kill. McGlaughlin now stands with 15 other Huskies who have previously achieved the feat.

“Allison and I have a really good friendship so it’s really exciting to see her be successful on the court and be able to help her along the way,” said Hoffman, who set up the kill. “I think it’s a great honor for her, and I’m glad I can help her and be here with her.”