The NIU volleyball team is slowly taking out the MAC West Division’s best teams.

The latest team to fall to the Huskies (16-7, 5-5 MAC) was MAC West-leading Eastern Michigan. NIU beat EMU on Tuesday 30-25, 27-30, 36-34 and 30-23 at Victor E. Court in front of a crowd of 262.

NIU topped Ball State last Friday in four games, after which both BSU and EMU were ahead of the Huskies in the MAC standings.

“We’re just working really hard with our home-court advantage,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “We are trying to make our position in the MAC Tournament that much better.”

The Huskies had four players reach double-digit kills. Tera Lobdell and Kate McCullagh led NIU with 17 kills apiece. Brooke Dodson and Megan Markowski had 16 and 11 kills, respectively.

The 17 kills that McCullagh had broke her career-high, which she set on Friday. It was the second time in as many matches that McCullagh reached double-digits. She also had a team-high .393 hitting percentage.

“Kate McCullagh really stepped up for us big-time,” Lobdell said. “She was a threat to open up our other hitters that normally hit for us. Our defense was a lot better and so was our attitude.”

EMU was led in kills by the trio of Jennifer Nighswander, Emily Busch and Katie Wagernmaker, who combined for 40 of their team’s 65 kills. Nighswander led EMU with 16 kills.

Despite EMU (18-5, 6-4 MAC) having its main players play well, EMU plagued itself by giving away too many points to the Huskies.

“When you have 50 unforced errors on your side of the net, you’re not doing a whole lot right,” EMU coach Kim Berrington said. “I felt that we were less aggressive and NIU was more aggressive and played harder. End of story.”

EMU had a combined 54 errors and a team hitting percentage of .163. The Eagles had a .219 team hitting percentage coming into the match.

The Huskies are 12-3 in matches this year at Victor E. Court. Gooden said he likes how his team is using its home court.

“I think that the atmosphere is really good, especially the band,” Gooden said. “We make it really tough for teams to play here. It’s nice to take advantage of a home match.”