Friday was the end of a fashion statement for NIU volleyball head coach Ray Gooden.

The coach had grown and kept a beard during the Huskies’ five-game winning streak. But, with a loss Friday night to Kent State (17-6, 8-2), Gooden came to Saturday’s match against Ohio with a clean-shaven face.

NIU (11-13, 5-5) fought two close contests in the first games against Kent State. The Huskies would lose Game 1 by four points, but would rebound by winning the second game by two points.

Tied one game apiece, NIU dashed past Kent State in Game 3, beating the Golden Flashes 30-19. However, the Huskies couldn’t keep the momentum, and Kent State went on to win Game 4 and 5.

“We felt pretty confident. Maybe a little too confident,” NIU setter Mandi Caputo said of going into Game 4. “We came back fighting in the fifth game, but it wasn’t enough.”

As a team, the Huskies put up a total of 114 digs and 84 kills Friday night. NIU had four players reach double-digit kills with outside hitters Meagan Schoenrock and Irene Johnson both providing at least 20 kills apiece.

Caputo led the Huskies with 34 digs in the match, and provided 70 of the team’s 81 assists. The senior continued to be a force Saturday night against the No. 20 team, Ohio (17-4, 9-1), as she dished up another 46 assists.

However, the Huskies weren’t able to rebound from Friday night’s loss with a win, as they lost in four games to the Bobcats.

One of the keys for Ohio’s victory was the ability to put together long scoring runs. In four games, the Bobcats had 17 runs where they scored three or more points in a row. The longest of these runs came in Game 4, when Ohio scored six points straight to take a 9-3 lead against NIU.

“We played hard at times. At other times, we let them on runs,” middle blocker Jessica Schultz said. “Ohio’s a good team, but we have to stop those runs.”

Schultz was second on the team with 10 kills against the Bobcats. Senior outside hitter Laura Baetzel lead NIU with 13 kills in the four games, while freshman libero Maddie Hughes was the defensive leader with 13 digs.

Ohio showed why it’s ranked No. 20 in the nation as three players reached double digits in kills, two players had 25-plus assists and three players provided 10-plus digs.

Ohio middle blocker Melissa Griffin had a career night. The senior posted 26 kills to two errors on 34 attempts. At the end of the match, Griffin had a hitting percentage of .706. By comparison, NIU’s best hitting percentage was by Schultz, who posted a .381.

Gooden was disappointed in the losses this weekend. This weekend showed Gooden that his team has the ability to win whenever it wants to.

NIU was down two games to zero against the Bobcats, but was able to win Game 3 and start Game 4 ahead of Ohio.

“When our team wants to put our mind to it, they can do anything,” the coach said. “We were up, but we weren’t able to maintain it.”