Despite a straight-games loss to Illinois State, there was one bright spot for the NIU volleyball team Tuesday.

In a non-starter role, freshman Kate McCullagh set a career high in kills with 10.

“She was ready to play, she really wanted it bad,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “For whatever reason she was there and she came out firing.”

McCullagh’s previous high was eight in a five-game match against UIC.

The 6-foot middle blocker was one of two Huskies to finish with double-digit kills.

“Kate’s starting to want it more and more each day and that’s good,” Gooden said. “She’s putting the extra time to get better. She had great results tonight, we’re just looking for her to be consistent.”

McCullagh, who has come off the bench all season, also led the team with six blocks in the match and had a .421 hitting percentage. She thought that she might be the spark off the bench that the team needed Tuesday night.

“I know we really wanted to win this one,” McCullagh said. “But maybe they just needed some motivation and I thought coming off the bench and playing halfway decent would be some motivation. But I guess it wasn’t well enough.”

Every home match, a Huskies player is featured on the cover of the program. McCullagh picked a good time to have her best match, as Tuesday was McCullagh’s turn to be on the cover.

“She played great and it was a great rebound from the match against Ohio,” Gooden said.

Before the match, McCullagh said she was excited because she was facing a high-school friend in Redbird outside hitter Savannah Knowles.

Knowles led ISU with 11 kills, while posting a .391 hitting percentage.

“It was fun,” Knowles said. “I was happy we both got to play. Being freshmen, I don’t think either of us were expecting to play that much, but the fact that we both got to play a lot against each other was really cool.”