Momentum and consistency intricacies are part of any student’s nightmare in a physics class.

For the NIU volleyball team, momentum and consistency were more than theoretical problems this weekend as the team either lived or died by its success in these areas.

The Huskies (10-10, 3-3 MAC) split another weekend of competition for the third week in a row, as they beat Central Michigan (3-13, 0-6) on Friday and fell to Eastern Michigan (11-5, 5-1) on Saturday.

NIU squeaked out a win from CMU in five games (21-30, 30-27, 30-28, 25-30, 15-12).

Senior middle blocker Corinne Walsh had a career-high 22 kills, while teammates Kate McCullagh, Joelle Beisel and Amy Ward added 19, 12 and 11 kills respectively.

NIU coach Ray Gooden felt the individual success of these players was because of a team effort that focused on controlling the momentum of the game and playing consistent volleyball.

“We knew it was about momentum,” Gooden said as his team was heading into game five. “We needed to get it and keep it.”

While NIU was able to hold on to the momentum Friday night against CMU, they were unable to transfer success to Saturday night’s game against EMU, as the Huskies fell to the Eagles in three games (30-20, 30-21, 30-27).

“Eastern was just able to make more consistent plays,” Gooden said. “They were able to score points in bunches. It was a tough way to end the weekend.”

McCullagh, the national leader in kills per game, led the team with 16 kills against the Eagles. Teammates Ward and Beisel both notched another nine kills as well.

Gooden has seen glimpses of greatness in his team during the past weeks, while at other times he admits the team can be flat.

“There’s sometimes we play some really good volleyball,” the fourth-year coach said. “There’s sometimes we are not as crisp as we can be. We know it and we are capable of fixing it.”