NIU volleyball coach Todd Kress was expecting Saturday’s MAC championship game to go a full five games.

Much to Kress’ surprise, the Huskies defeated Ball State in three games, winning 30-21, 30-17, 30-24, claiming the MAC Tournament Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“I think Ball State was a little tired,” said the third-year coach, of Ball State’s five game marathon against Bowling Green on Friday. “I understand that they were probably emotionally flat going into tonight. We knew if we came out of the gates strong that we would like our chances.”

The Huskies (24-5) did just what Kress hoped they would.

Led by freshman Tera Lobdell, who had eight kills on 11 attempts in Game 1, the Huskies were able to claim the first game 30-21. NIU jumped ahead of the Cardinals (21-9), going on a 7-2 run to take an early 20-13 lead. A Jaime Stanley service error gave the Huskies the Game 1 win.

Game 2 was just as easy for the Huskies, led again by Lodbell’s seven kills on 15 attempts in the second game.

Game 3 garnered the same results as the first two games, with the Huskies pulling the 30-24 victory.

The Huskies jumped ahead on the Cardinals (15-11) when Lobdell came down with a kill. The Huskies were able to pull away, taking the 23-16 lead, but Ball State muscled its way back to pull withing four, 27-23. The Huskies faced game and match point but the Cardinals’ Katie Butts spike forced the Huskies to go another point.

And with junior outside hitter Jen VonderHaar’s kill, the celebration began. With cheers of NIU and NCAA, Carrie Blankenship carried the MAC championship trophy around Chick Evans Field House.

“I knew we had to just keep pushing through everything,” Bowman said. “In the third game, I started getting excited with 27 points and started jumping up and down. But then I thought to myself, ‘We need to keep fighting. This is a good team and they can easily come back on us’.”

Kress added, “We talked about if we want to win this MAC championship, we need to play good volleyball on both sides of the ball. We have been an offensive minded team all year and down the stretch, we played well on both sides of the ball. I don’t know if we can play much better than that.”

Ball State coach Randy Litchfield blamed himself for the loss.

“I never felt from opening weekend that I got it put together,” the Cardinal coach said. “I put this one on me. Great talent, senior leadership, we have all that and we preform like that. The blame has to be put on the coach. This one is on me.

“The biggest evolution that I have made as a coach is that I am so focused on winning and losing, but I would like to see performance. NIU is always good enough to beat us and we played great, but I was not happy with our performance. That is the frustration of this.”

Cardinal outside hitter Megan Hammonds said it was not a surprise to see a team dominate the MAC tournament the way the Huskies did this year. NIU won all three matches in the minimum nine games.

“We dominated MAC tournaments in the past, so no, it is not a surprise,” Hammonds said. “They really wanted it. They went out there and played like it.”