Despite a school-record 35 digs from junior Megan Sprangers, history repeated itself Friday night at Akron as NIU lost its fourth match in a row.

NIU (7-14 overall, 2-5 MAC) totaled 123 digs in a defensive battle, including 27 from senior outside hitter Tera Lobdell and 25 from sophomore libero Gina Guide. But like last year, Akron (11-8, 3-4) bettered NIU with six players registering double digits in kills to lead the Zips to a 3-1 decision.

“Akron is a traditionally strong defensive team,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “We had to come close to matching that tonight. Both teams made some really good defensive plays to score some critical points.”

All four games were decided by two points. In games one and two, freshman outside hitter Laura Baetzel rallied the Huskies from deficits of seven and three points on her serves, but Akron pulled away at the end to take the 2-0 lead.

NIU came back from seven points down again in game three and closed out the game with two kills by Lobdell, who led the team with 22.

But the Huskies could not sustain the momentum in game four. Despite coming back to tie the match at 29, an NIU error and an Akron kill sealed the match for the Zips.

NIU middle blocker Megan Markowski continued her offensive resurgence with 17 kills, and sophomore middle blocker Kate McCullagh contributed 16 kills and a team-high nine blocks.

But the offense finished with a .134 hitting percentage for the match and was again unable to close out a match.

The Huskies will attempt to break their season-high four-match losing streak as they host Eastern Michigan at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Victor E. Court.