It was another dominant weekend at home for NIU volleyball.

For the ninth and 10th times this season, the Huskies (13-9, 5-3 MAC) were able to record straight-set victories at home, taking down Buffalo (5-17, 0-8 MAC) on Friday, and Akron (7-12, 1-7 MAC) on Saturday.

The strong Homecoming weekend pushed NIU’s home record to 10-2.

“We were joking around, saying that we were the bread in the Homecoming sandwich this weekend,” said NIU head coach Ray Gooden. “We started it, and we wanted to end it, and football’s always going to be the meat of it, and that’s cool. Soccer did a great job, and we were just happy to do our part, you know, play well in the beginning and play well in the end.”

Play well is what the Huskies did, as they totaled 10 blocks and had an attacking percentage of .291 over the weekend.

“The biggest thing for us is that we really did a good job of handling the ball on our side of the net,” Gooden said. “I thought both matches this weekend, we really wanted to stress taking care of the ball, and I thought we did a really good job with it.”

The performance at the setter position was key in creating offensive balance, as junior Amanda Tadla, coming back from injury, saw action in one set Friday.

Freshman setter Kristin Hoffman spread the ball well, tallying 40 assists and helping three Huskies record double-digit kills Saturday against the Zips.

Pacing the Huskie attack was senior outside hitter Irene Johnson. The Schaumburg, Ill., native recorded 23 kills on the weekend, with an astounding .440 attacking percentage.

Helping out on the offense was junior Meagan Schoenrock, who registered 26 kills over the two matches.

For Johnson, preparation was key to the big weekend.

“We worked on a lot of different combos and stuff in practice,” Johnson said. “Getting everyone involved and running around, running some different sets and moving around a little more I think helped out a lot.”

The Huskies return to action Friday, when they travel to Athens, Ohio, to take on Ohio University (13-6, 6-2).