NIU volleyball has reached uncharted territory. For the first time in program history, the Huskies have started a season 8-0.

Over the weekend the Huskies won the UIC Invitational in impressive fashion, winning matches 3-0 against Kennesaw State, Memphis and University of Illinois at Chicago.

With the final win in the championship match against the host Flames (2-3), the Huskies have now won the last 13 games and outranked their opponents in kills (397-270), hitting percentage (.320-.166), digs (390-309) and aces (70-17).

“Every game we’ve played this year, we’ve gone out with confidence in ourselves as a group of 13,” said junior setter Kristin Hoffman. “We trust each other that no matter what the situation is… we’re all one big group, which I think has been the key to being 8-0. There’s no one weak player.”

Hoffman finished her weekend with 108 assists, 42 which came against the Flames. Many of those assists were to freshman outside hitter Lauren Wicinski, who garnered her second double-double of the tournament and fourth this season. The team-high four aces, 21 kills and 10 digs in the final match helped Wicinski earn the tournament MVP honor.

Adding 25 digs and seven aces to the team total for the weekend, senior libero Maddie Hughes also earned all-tournament honors.

The success of the team, ninth-year head coach Ray Gooden said, is what helps the individuals stand out.

“At the end [of the tournament] some individuals get awards, but for sure we’re not going to get those awards if our team doesn’t play well,” Gooden said. “It’s nice to be able to go out and battle and get positive results.”

After beginning the tournament against Kennesaw State, slower than in past matches this season, Gooden said the team found its rhythm and carried energy and aggressiveness into the Memphis battle before finishing the tournament against UIC.

“The UIC match was just a Chicago battle,” Gooden said. “We play Illinois teams on our schedule for a reason. A lot of our players know their players and vice versa. We didn’t start out as comfortable as we usually had. But then we were able to settle ourselves down and that made it fun in the end.”