A loss to Toledo on Oct. 19 was the third consecutive for the NIU volleyball team.

The loss also left the Huskies in last place in the MAC West.

Fast forward a week and NIU finds itself on a two-match winning streak and tied for second place in the MAC.

“I think lately we’ve been able to play through some tough spots,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “We had a tough time recovering from some things that happened in some previous matches, but we’re trying to work at overcoming that, and putting ourselves in a better position to score. We have a lot of changes going on.”

With Tuesday’s win over Eastern Michigan, the Huskies (16-7, 5-5 MAC) are now in a four-way tie for second place in the west division. Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Ball State and the Huskies are all 5-5 in the MAC.

“If you look at every team so far, they all are going through these streaks where they win three, lose four,” Gooden said. “People are just really streaky right now.”

EMU still leads the west with a 6-4 record in conference play.

After Tuesday, every team in the west, with the exception of Bowling Green, is within a game-and-a-half of first place.

On Friday, the Huskies will take on WMU in a match that will push one team out from the four-way tie.

The past two wins have been a big boost in terms of conference standings for the Huskies. Freshman middle blocker Kate McCullagh said the wins also have helped the team regain confidence lost from the three-match losing streak.

“That was a pretty good team we just beat,” McCullagh said. “I think that will give us a lot of confidence to go out and work our butts off for the next few games.”

Of NIU’s six remaining matches, four come against one of the five teams either in first or within a game-and-a-half.