Instead of crushing their opponents in 45 minutes and allowing 12 points for the entire match, NIU must have been bored because after playing their role to script in the first game Tuesday night, they made things interesting and let the Blue Demons come alive in the next two games making the scores closer than necessary.

Crushing opponents by scores of 15-2 or 15-3 must not be too appealing to the Huskies as of late, but letting opponents score ten or 12 points sure does make the game look more interesting.

So when DePaul lost for only the second time in 11 matches last night by the score of 15-3, 15-10, 15-12, it came as a pleasant surprise to see NIU actually making it look as though they were challenged.

Leading the way for NIU was Nikki Kozak who registered 12 kills minus four errors for a .276 hitting clip. Both Shelby Snyder and Joyce Book sparked the defense each recording 11 digs.

These teams NIU seems to be rolling over may not be winning even one game in a match, but the ease in which these matches seemed to be taken care of is no longer apparent.

However, the Huskies don’t have to worry about losing any ground in their national ranking. They were assured of that ten days ago when they dropped two of three in Texas.

Being the premiere team in Illinois sure has its advantages and one includes being able to experiment with opponents and see what works and what doesn’t for the tougher matches to come.

It might not have looked easy, but they still won, they’re still in first, and they are still going to the NCAA tourney.

So what happened last night is not a sign the Huskies are letting up, they still did have one player with an attack percentage over .300, but rather a sign the Huskies need some more stimulating opponents.

If head coach Pete Waite felt his Huskies weren’t in control would he pull his top player in the second game? Would they be able to give up five points while only scoring one and then come back to take game two with such relative ease?

The only thing the Huskies are doing is trying to make the games a little more exciting for the fans, which there seem to be very little of.

Come next Tuesday anyone bored enough to visit Chick Evans Field House is going to see a side of the Huskies we have yet to see this year, unless you were in California earlier in the season.

Everything the Huskies have done means nothing next Tuesday because when they step onto the floor at 7:00 P.M. and Illinois State University is breathing down their necks, the Huskies will stop at nothing to do away with Redbirds.