Despite Tera Lobdell’s All-Tournament performance, the NIU women’s volleyball team went 0-3 over the weekend and finished fourth out of four teams.

Hosting the Comfort Inn and Suites Invitational, the Huskies looked to test itself against strong non-conference opponents including No. 7 Washington, coach Ray Gooden said.

Starting Friday night at Victor E. Court, NIU lost to Wisconsin-Milwaukee in four games by scores of 26-30, 30-24, 24-30 and 26-30.

NIU then had to try and rebound against Washington early on Saturday. The first game of the match was close throughout with 10 ties and five lead changes. But with the score tied at 21-21, NIU couldn’t make the big play as Corrine Walsh served the ball into the net and middle blocker Megan Markowski hit two straight kill attempts out of bounds and Washington took the game 30-26.

NIU never recovered from the loss, losing 16-30 and 20-30.

“Our errors were really big in that match,” Gooden said. “Everything is based off our errors and we made a lot of them. And then we just didn’t show up after the first game.”

Gooden said one reason for the team’s lack of energy was it didn’t have an emotional leader.

Finishing up the tournament late Saturday night, NIU tried to salvage the tourney with a third place match against Butler. The team again came out flat, allowing Butler to hit more than 30 percent of its kills in the first two games, losing 23-30 and 24-30.

The Huskies stormed back, taking games three and four 30-19 and 30-13.

“That is how we can play and should play,” NIU’s middle blocker Kate McCullagh said. “We were obnoxious and we got in their heads instead of coming out timid.”

But the energy died in the fifth game, and Butler took the match with a 15-9 victory.

“We lost the opening point and we were done,” Gooden said. “It’s all about focus and we didn’t have it. We just can’t get out of negative situations.”

The match versus Butler was not a total loss, as Lobdell solidified her nomination to the All-Tournament team with 29 kills, 13 digs and 35 total points and McCullagh stepped up big with her energy, Gooden said.

The team will try to use the tough weekend to fuel them when they take on UIC at 7 p.m. today at Victor E. Court.

“We are going to be extremely hungry going into that game,” McCullagh said. “But we now know if we play our best, there is nobody who can stop us.”