After four straight road losses, the NIU volleyball team broke through with 19 team blocks and a 3-1 victory over Toledo in its final regular season road contest.

“We blocked the ball really well,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “Everyone on this team really stepped it up and helped us get this win. When you do that you win. It’s that simple.”

The Huskies (9-17 overall, 4-7 MAC) will finish the regular season with five matches at home, including a rematch with Toledo (14-10, 3-8) in two weeks.

“It’s been tough being on the road every weekend,” senior outside hitter Tera Lobdell said. “But we can’t relax too much because we have to defend our home court. It will be a true test when Toledo comes back here in November against us at home.”

The Huskies scored first and never trailed in Game 1 as Lobdell recorded six kills and the team racked up a .317 hitting percentage for the game. NIU was 8-4 on the season entering the match when it won the first game of a match.

But the NIU defense emerged in Game 2, with 8.5 blocks and kept Toledo to a .000 hitting percentage. The Huskies took a 26-15 advantage before Toledo scored 12 of the next 14 points to make the score 28-27. But a kill and service ace from Lobdell ended the threat 30-27.

NIU took the early lead 14-8 in Game 3, but could not hold the edge as Toledo battled back to take the game 30-28.

Game 4 saw NIU take another early lead at 13-9, but Toledo continued to rally to close the score to 27-26. But a tandem block by Megan Markowski and Amy Ward coupled with a Toledo attack and service errors preserved the win for the Huskies.

Lobdell led the team with 17 kills and said she was most impressed by junior middle blocker Corinne Walsh’s performance. Walsh rebounded from her four-kill, nine-error performance against Illinois State to post five kills and eight blocks with no errors against Toledo.

“Corinne played awesome,” Lobdell said. “She scored pretty good and blocked really well. I didn’t play so well, so she helped pick up the slack. Different players keep stepping up, so we need that to continue.”

Sophomore middle blocker Kate McCullagh, who totaled 12 kills and a match-high nine blocks, said the victory was a big boost for team confidence going into the November home matches.

“It’s big not only because we won, but because we played so well,” McCullagh said. “You don’t have to play well to win all the time. It wasn’t just one person. Everyone got their job done.”