NIU volleyball coach Todd Kress knew that the Huskies were going to have to play well on the road to have a chance at a conference title, and they did that this weekend, winning two conference games.

The Huskies took another weekend of play on the road, Ohio to be exact, and showed that their balance is going to make them a force to be reckoned with in the Mid-American Conference.

NIU (8-4 overall, 5-2 in the MAC) didn’t perform very well in its first road trip, where it lost two of three games, but since then it has won five in a row and just concluded beating Kent State on Friday night and Toledo on Saturday.

The Huskies defeated Kent State 30-27, 30-25, 26-30, 30-18. NIU never trailed in the first two games and controlled seven-point leads twice.

“We controlled the tempo in the first two games and that helped us get out of the blocks,” Kress said. “They made some big runs in those games and we didn’t finish pretty down the stretch but we got the job done.”

Senior Carrie Blankenship played well, finishing with a match-high 17 kills and a .441 hitting percentage. Jen Vonderhaar added 13 kills and Rena Widboom had 10 kills. Sophomore Jenny Bowman ran the offense smoothly as she posted 49 assists, nine digs, six service aces, six kills and a hitting percentage of .500.

On Saturday evening, NIU brought its four game conference winning streak to Toledo, and came away with the streak extended to five.

NIU, like the previous night, took the match in four games, 30-23, 30-26, 22-30, 30-23. The current conference win streak is the team’s longest since a six game winning streak took place in 1998.

“This was a big win for us tonight because Toledo is a solid team and not many teams have or will win here,” Kress said. “We played very well at times and very sporadic at times.”

Once again, Blankenship played well, as she compiled 12 kills, a match-high 16 digs, and hitting percentage of .522. Freshman Tera Lobdell played about as well as Blankenship, racking up a match-high 14 kills, along with 10 digs and three service aces.

The Huskies could’ve swept the match as they got the lead early, but the Rockets went on a 13-0 run and eventually took the third game, before falling to the Huskies in four.

Junior Jen Vonderhaar was less of a factor as she struggled on the court because of an illness.

“It’s such a positive sign to have balance like we have and see players step up to perform while others are hurt,” Kress said. “I give my players a lot of credit. They got the job done in a very difficult place to play.”