Senior Carrie Blankenship loves playing at home, and she showed why this past weekend against Bowling Green State and Buffalo, as the Huskies pulled out two wins.

“It’s always great to play in your own gym,” Blankenship said. “These wins were huge for us. Not only do we have a winning record now, but these last few wins, especially the Miami game, will prove to be a big turning point for us.”

The next two weekends have the Huskies playing on the road, which is where they were last week for three games.

This past weekend was important for NIU (6-4 overall, 3-2 in the MAC), and it responded with two impressive victories.

Blankenship carried the balanced-team attack on Friday night with 10 kills and 15 digs, and followed that performance on Saturday with five kills and four digs, while only playing in one game.

Everyone got a chance to play this weekend, and everyone seemed to contribute in her own way.

Freshman Tera Lobdell led the attack against Bowling Green State with 15 kills, while Jen Vonderhaar had 16 kills for the weekend and hit at over a .400 percentage.

Coach Todd Kress believed NIU played its best game against BGS.

“We played mistake-free volleyball this weekend,” said Kress. “I thought we played as close to perfect volleyball as we could on Friday night.”

The Huskies took all six games over the weekend, winning both matches impressively. In the six games, NIU won three of them by over 10 points and even doubled Buffalo in its first game, 30-15.

The only trouble NIU encountered came in the second game against Buffalo, when the Huskies held a 29-21 lead and eventually won 30-25.

There is clearly no place like home, and the Huskies seemed to prove that statement this weekend.

“We needed two, after last week’s tough start on the road,” said Kress. “We needed to come back and build some confidence, we needed to come back and play well while winning two, and I think we did both.”