To be successful, the NIU volleyball team needs to be able to win on the road and beat the conference bottom dwellers. The Huskies did that this weekend against Bowling Green and Buffalo.

The Huskies (10-6, 3-1 MAC) defeated Buffalo on Friday 30-28, 30-24, 25-30, 30-28. On Sunday they ousted BGSU 30-21, 30-27, 30-28.

“In this league, it’s always good to win on the road,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “After the way we came out against Illinois State, it was good to see us rebound with a victory.”

Four players reached double digits in kills on Friday. Outside hitter Tera Lobdell led the way with 18 kills and 10 digs. Fellow outside hitter Tenisha Wilkins added 12 kills and the middle blocking duo of Jen VonderHaar and Rena Widboom each racked up 11 kills.

Shara Parker led the team in digs with 15.

“That’s the kind of output that I’ve been looking for out of them,” Gooden said. “The outside hitters did a good job of taking care of things tonight. Tenisha picked up some big points for us toward the end of the match.”

Lobdell had another stellar game against the Falcons as she spiked home 18 more kills along with nine digs.

Wilkins complimented Lobdell with 12 kills and 16 digs. She became the sixth player in NIU history to record 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career. She did this with her third dig against BGSU.

Wilkins also tallied four service aces against the Falcons.

NIU, which has had trouble minimizing mistakes, committed 25 errors.

The Huskies hit at a .345 attack percentage for the match and didn’t hit under .300 in any game. The third and final game saw the Huskies hit at .409.

Setter Jenny Rohren had 44 assists to go along with three kills and a service ace.