DeKALB | The NIU volleyball team reached double-digit wins and remains undefeated after playing its first out-of-state matches this weekend.

The Huskies traveled to Elon, N.C. to show three southern universities how DeKalb volleyball is played.

The Elon Classic began Friday morning, with the Huskies (11-0) taking on the host Phoenix (7-4).

After dropping the second game 23-25, the Huskies charged back taking the third and fourth, 25-12 and 25-18, respectively.

“Elon was the home team so they were going to play with the most energy, and it was our first match,” NIU head coach Ray Gooden said. “They had a couple of experienced kids that frustrated us a little early and forced us to become a team that had to find different ways to become successful. That’s pretty much the feel of the weekend.”

Just under two hours later, the Huskies were back on court to take on Liberty (6-3), a team Gooden said also proved frustrating to the Huskies. NIU turned in a season-low .137 hitting percentage, but bested the Flames’ hitting percentage of .071.

The Huskies also turned in 33 kills, six aces and 41 digs in the match.

“We [had] to find different ways to be successful,” Gooden said. “That’s what helped us through this weekend. We had to do better things in order to be successful.”

After taking down the Stetson Hatters (1-9) in just three sets on Saturday, three Huskies were announced to the all-tournament team.

For the third consecutive tournament, freshman outside hitter Lauren Wicinski was announced, as was sophomore blocker Mary Kurisch. Wicinski left Elon with team-highs of 44 points and 38 kills. Kurisch notched a team-high seven blocks and 18 kills.

Setting both Kurisch and Wicinski up to make those kills was tournament most valuable player Kristin Hoffman. The junior setter finished the tournament with 94 assists, three aces and six kills of her own.

“Kristin [Hoffman] was able to distribute the ball to everyone, try to get some balls to a lot of different people,” Gooden said. “Lauren [Wicinski] again had another nice weekend with scoring points for us and Mary [Kurisch] got herself back on track to being a very solid force in the middle. Those three things really help make our team a little better.”