Before this weekend, the NIU volleyball team had yet to lose two consecutive matches this season.

After a loss to Illinois State on Tuesday, the Huskies fell to Bowling Green, 30-25, 22-30, 30-28, 30-25 Saturday, giving them their first losing streak.

The news didn’t get any better on Sunday, when NIU was beat by Toledo in straight games, 32-30, 30-19, 32-30 for the third loss in a row.

“Right now, we are not playing with any confidence,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “We have got to dig deep, fight through this and find some confidence in our abilities.”

In the loss to the Rockets, junior outside hitter Tera Lobdell led NIU (14-7, 3-5 MAC) with 12 kills. Lobdell was the Huskies’ only player with double digits in kills.

Toledo (8-13, 4-6) had a trio of players finish with 10 or more kills. Rachel Mohler led the match with 16 kills, while Corrie Magnus and Kate Bean had 12 and 11, respectively.

The Huskies, who started the season 10-1, have gone 4-6 in their last 10 matches. They are now in last place in the MAC west standings.

“We had a chance to win two matches this weekend and move ourselves into first place,” Gooden said. “Now, we are in last place and have a really tough stretch coming up in our schedule. We are going to have to work hard over the next couple weeks, because every match is going to be tough.”

Junior Megan Markowski set her season-high with 24 kills in the loss to Bowling Green (11-10, 3-4). Markowski also had a .309 hitting percentage for the Huskies. Lobdell added 20 kills, while Shara Parker had 11 in the loss.