Solid blocking and an efficient transition offense helped the NIU volleyball team end its three-game losing streak with a sweep of the University of Illinois-Chicago on Tuesday night.

“We used Saturday night’s match as motivation,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “We came out fired up and wanted to do good things with our blocks and transitions.”

Senior outside hitter Tera Lobdell led the offensive attack with 18 kills and only three errors as the Huskies triumphed with a 30-12, 30-24, 30-23 victory over the Flames at Victor E. Court before a crowd of 355.

“I was seeing more of the court [Tuesday],” Lobdell said. “Their middle blockers kept their blocks in, so I had good open shots all night.”

Gooden was most impressed by Lobdell’s season-high .469 hitting percentage.

“Tera knows how important her contributions are to our team,” Gooden said. “That’s what good players do. It’s really fun to see that.”

Nine blocks from senior middle blocker Megan Markowski paced an NIU defense that held UIC to a -.028 hitting percentage for the match.

“We have players familiar with our system and they’re making better moves on the block,” Gooden said. “We’re controlling the block really well, too, even though it doesn’t show up in the box score.”

Freshman outside hitter Amy Ward played in all three games and responded with a career-high seven kills and two blocks to help the Huskies to a season-high .302 hitting percentage.

“I was a lot more confident,” Ward said. “The fact I was in longer than five minutes helped me calm down and come back to playing like myself. I wasn’t nervous at all.”

Ward’s performance on both sides of the ball did not go unnoticed by Gooden.

“It was good for Amy to get some good positive numbers,” he said. “She is very capable of doing it. She just needs to build her confidence and she’ll go a long way.”

After losing three straight matches over the weekend and with a three-week road trip coming up, Ward said the win against an in-state rival is big for team morale.

“We played tough teams over the weekend and came up short,” Lobdell said. “This win is definitely a confidence booster, and we’re having a lot more fun on the court.”