Ball State volleyball coach Randy Litchfield called Friday’s match against NIU a joke.

Ball State, who beat the Huskies 3-0 earlier in the season, never trailed in winning the first game by seven points.

NIU responded by winning three consecutive games to beat the Cardinals, 23-30, 30-17, 30-27, 30-28 at Victor E. Court on Friday night.

“I think we got cocky and overconfident,” Litchfield said. “We turned in one joke of a performance. To play that well in Game One and to collapse like we did is really ridiculous. You get beat 3-0 a lot, and one team is the better team. Tonight we were the better team to start the match and then collapsed. It was a joke.”

For the Huskies (15-7, 4-5 MAC), it was their first win since Oct. 11 against Marshall. The win also was NIU’s first over the Cardinals (10-11, 5-4 MAC) since the 2000 season. Ball State was the preseason favorite to win the MAC West

“If we look at it like we haven’t beaten them since 2000, that puts a lot of pressure on us, and that’s not what we wanted to do,” senior outside hitter Brooke Dodson said. “We wanted to focus on our side and get back in to the groove we were in earlier in the season.”

Dodson was one of three Huskies to finish the match with double-digit kills. She led the match with 20, while Tera Lobdell had 19 and Kate McCullagh finished with 11 for NIU.

McCullagh, a freshman middle blocker, led the team with a .455 hitting percentage in her first career start. She also led the match with seven blocks.

“It’s always good to beat Ball State,” Dodson said. “They’re an excellent team. I think what’s important for us was that it helps the team confidence. We sort of hit a bump there with the three losses.”

In the fourth game, the Huskies trailed 16-11 at one point, before a Lobdell kill started an NIU rally. The Huskies tied the game at 17, and eventually took a 20-19 lead and never fell behind again.