Mental mistakes and service errors by the NIU volleyball team erased its 2-1 advantage as Oral Roberts handed the Huskies their third-straight loss at home Wednesday.

The Huskies (7-13) committed 11 service errors and misjudged several serves in front of a divided crowd of 307 at Victor E. Court.

The bi-partisan crowd was split between Oral Roberts’ Kim Snow, a DeKalb High School graduate, and NIU’s Amy Ward, a Sycamore High School graduate. Both outside hitters, Snow had seven kills compared to Ward’s five.

“We tried to serve aggressively to get them out of their offense,” said NIU senior middle blocker Megan Markowski, who had a season-high 16 kills with a .394 hitting percentage. “That’s why we had so many errors. We were trying to set the pace of the game.”

After splitting Games 1 and 2, the Huskies grabbed the momentum in Game 3 with 10 blocks and a .417 hitting percentage. NIU built a 16-point lead and won the game 30-14.

“[Corinne Walsh] did a great job setting the block [Wednesday],” said NIU middle blocker Kate McCullagh, who had a match-high eight blocks. “All I had to do was close towards her. She made my job really easy.”

But the Huskies lost all momentum in Games 4 and 5 as Oral Roberts (12-9) came back with 14 kills from outside hitter Ori Zuzic to take the match.

The Huskies fall to 3-6 at Victor E. Court, a year after going 15-5 in DeKalb.

NIU is now 1-4 in matches that have gone five games this season.

“I really don’t know why we aren’t closing,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “We can win a fifth game. The fifth game is all about momentum. We just need to get over the hump mentally.”