Kerri Royer’s return to her home state wasn’t exactly what she and the NIU volleyball team hoped for.

Royer, a native of Kalamazoo, returned to Michigan along with her teammates as the Huskies lost to Eastern Michigan on Friday and Central Michigan on Saturday.

NIU (11-11, 4-6 MAC) came up short against the Eagles on Friday with a final of 30-23, 30-22, 28-30 and 30-19.

“We were just not consistent tonight,” coach Ray Gooden said. “It’s nothing new to what’s been going on all year long. We’ve been going down the same road of inconsistency the entire season.”

With the win over NIU, the Eagles (18-5, 7-4 MAC) have won their last 13 home matches. They now have a 14-match home winning streak as they beat Buffalo on Saturday.

This was the second time this season that EMU has beat the Huskies. The Eagles swept NIU at Victor E. Court on Oct. 12.

After NIU dropped the first game, it held a 19-14 lead over the Eagles before EMU closed out the game on a 16-3 run.

The Huskies were able to hold off the Eagles in the third game as Tera Lobdell finished them off with a kill to end the threat.

The fourth and final game wasn’t so kind for NIU. It was never able to get any closer than three points as it lost that game 30-19 and the match 3-1.

Lobdell and Tenisha Wilkins each pitched in with 12 kills and 13 digs. Jen VonderHaar had 12 kills.

The trip to Mount Pleasant wasn’t any different for NIU.

The only difference was that the Huskies were able to push the match to five games, but the loss made it their third straight.

NIU had won the previous six meetings against the Chippewas (9-14, 5-5 MAC) before losing 28-30, 30-27, 24-30, 30-23 and 15-10.

“We weren’t able to find ways to stop them when things started slipping away,” Gooden said. “We put ourselves in position to make positive plays, but then we’re not able to do it.”

Wilkins, VonderHaar and Lobdell combined for 48 kills but had a .192 hitting percentage.

Wilkins and Lobdell had the same amount of digs for the second straight match, contributing 21 apiece.

Royer, a freshman setter, had 58 assists for the Huskies.

The Chippewas were led by Emily Lovejoy, who had 29 kills and 13 digs. Melissa Reynolds and Kendra DeVries added 15 and 13 kills, respectively.

These are the first conference road losses since Nov. 17, 2001, when NIU lost to Western Michigan.

“We just didn’t make smart plays when we needed to,” Gooden said. “We didn’t handle the pressure well and lost our focus at critical times. It’s a definition of what our season has been like.”