After losing three of its last four conference matches, the NIU volleyball team showed it still can be a force in the MAC.

The Huskies didn’t lose a single game in either of their matches this weekend, with 3-0 sweeps of Central Michigan and Ball State, and got themselves right back in the race for first-round home-court advantage in the MAC tournament.

On Friday, the Huskies (11-18 overall, 6-8 MAC) jumped on CMU (7-20, 3-12) early to steal 10 of the first 13 points and took Game 1 30-22 to set the pace for the match.

“It’s always nice to get out to a quick start like that,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “That really allowed us to set the tone and get into a good rhythm early in the match.”

Game 2 tightened up a bit with CMU up 28-27 late in the game, but NIU followed a CMU service error with two straight kills to take the game and then the match with a 30-23 win in Game 3.

Against Ball State (17-8, 10-3) the Huskies picked up right where they left off with Central Michigan with a 30-21 victory in Game 1.

“We not only beat them, we creamed them,” Huskies senior Tera Lobdell said. “If we play like that the rest of the season, we’ll do really well.”

It was all NIU once again in Game 2 when the Huskies handed Ball State a 30-13 loss – its worst loss in a game since it started rally-scoring format.

“This was our best team effort of the year,” Gooden said. “Every single person on this team made big-time, valuable contributions. That’s what you have to do to beat a team as good as Ball State.”

Sophomore Kate McCullagh led the Huskies with 17 kills, seven blocks and five digs.

“I can’t say it was any one player,” McCullagh said. “It was really the whole team’s effort.”