Despite jumping out to first-game leads, the NIU women’s volleyball team’s home-court advantage disappeared as the Huskies dropped both of their weekend matches to conference foes Marshall and Bowling Green.

NIU (7-12 overall, 2-4 MAC) saw its season-high three-match win streak snapped Friday night by Marshall (11-6, 3-1), which outscored the Huskies 88-68 in kills.

NIU’s offense came out firing in game one with a 30-23 win as sophomore middle blocker Kate McCullagh racked up seven kills on nine attempts.

After Marshall took the next two games, NIU’s defense stiffened in the fourth game with 6.5 of its 20.5 total team blocks to help close out the game 32-30.

Despite building a quick 7-2 lead in the decisive fifth game, mental mistakes and five kills from Marshall freshman outside hitter Kelly-Anne Billingy cost NIU the momentum and the match 18-16.

“Whenever Kelly-Anne had a chance to touch the ball, she made positive plays,” said NIU coach Ray Gooden. “She served the ball really well, and they scored a lot of points when she was serving.”

After being limited to five kills against Marshall, senior middle blocker Megan Markowski rebounded with 13 kills and a .571 hitting percentage against Bowling Green (11-7, 4-2).

The Huskies once again seized the first game 30-21 and also had late leads in games two and three, but a lack of blocking and miscommunication on the court let Bowling Green sweep the last three games and take the match.

“We’re just going to have to throw that match out because we know that’s not how we play,” McCullagh said. “We didn’t deserve to lose, but we can’t come out timid and expect to win. That’s how we don’t want to play.”