After falling in a quick match at Ohio on Friday, the NIU volleyball team rebounded for a straight-game win over Marshall to earn its 14th victory of the season.

The win improved the Huskies to 14-4 overall and 3-3 in the MAC. Despite a three-game loss the night before, NIU beat the Thundering Herd 30-25, 30-23, 30-21 to get win No. 14.

Marshall (13-8, 3-2 MAC) finished the match with a .000 hitting percentage, the lowest NIU has held an opponent to this season.

Sophomore Corinne Walsh led the Huskie defense with eight blocks.

“Our defense helped out a lot,” NIU head coach Ray Gooden said. “Our ability to block can put that much more pressure on the other team and take some pressure off us in terms of having to score with the kill.”

A trio of Huskies finished with nine kills each. Outside hitter Tera Lobdell and middle blockers Megan Markowski and Walsh all had nine kills. Markowski led the team with a .375 hitting percentage.

In the loss to the Bobcats, the Huskies fell behind 6-1 and were never able to recover. Ohio (13-3, 4-0 MAC) went on to win the match 30-18, 30-20, 30-15.

“We had some bad matchups, and we weren’t making very many adjustments,” Gooden said. “At the same time, they also have great attackers at every point.”

NIU finished with 35 kills, while the Bobcats had 48. Holly Schetzsle led all players with 16 kills and a .696 hitting percentage.

Last week’s national player of the week, Laura Hageman, added 16 kills, nine digs and nine blocks for Ohio.

Lobdell was the only NIU player in double digits with kills with 10, but had a .091 hitting percentage.

“They are a great blocking team,” Gooden said, “But we didn’t attack the ball very efficiently tonight, which helped them a lot.”

The Huskies are less than two-thirds of the way through the 2003 season and already have surpassed their win total from last season.