Senior Tera Lobdell became NIU’s all-time career kill leader, surpassing Amber Howard as the Huskies opened up conference play with a pair of losses over the weekend.

After 18 kills in a loss to Eastern Michigan (6-6 overall, 2-0 MAC) on Friday, Lobdell needed 21 kills against Bowling Green (9-4, 2-0) on Saturday for the record. She got a four-game career best 27 to put her over Howard with 1,490 career kills.

“It’s a great thing to accomplish, but to be honest, I didn’t even know I was that close to any kind of record,” Lobdell said. “I found out on the bus ride home.”

Despite the record, the atmosphere on the bus rides this weekend were not what the Huskies (4-10, 0-2) had hoped, Lobdell said.

Opening up conference play against EMU, the Huskies looked to get off to a quick start and use the momentum from their win against Loyola on Tuesday. Instead, NIU fell in four games 27-30, 14-30, 30-20, 18-30, as the team hit -.078 in games 2 and 4 and .060 for the night. The .060 was the Huskies’ lowest hitting percentage of the season.

“We just came out very flat,” coach Ray Gooden said. “We just couldn’t buy a kill.”

The only two with any success were Lobdell and Kate McCullagh, who combined for 34 kills. No other Huskie had more than five against the Eagles’ defense.

“It was just one of those nights when nothing was going our way,” setter Marie Zidek said.

Looking to rebound, NIU traveled to Bowling Green, but its hitting woes seemed to follow as it lost again in four games 20-30, 18-30, 30-26, 22-30.

Despite Lobdell’s record-setting performance, McCullagh was the only other NIU hitter with double-digit kills with 11, and the rest of the Huskies recorded a .171 hitting percentage compared to the Falcon’s .322.

“We were right there a couple times in the match, but it seems whenever we have pressure put on us, we just can’t fight back,” Lobdell said.