Green Bay ends Huskies’ win streak
NIU falls in four sets in match before meeting with highly-ranked Wisconsin
NIU Volleyball head coach Ray Gooden watches on during NIU’s game against Western Illinois on Aug. 27 at Victor E. Court. The Huskies sit at 2-2 heading into a home matchup with EIU on Saturday.
September 17, 2021
DeKALB — The NIU volleyball team lost a competitive back-and-forth match against Green Bay 3-1 at home Thursday evening.
NIU seemed to have control throughout the first set, holding a lead of 21-19 near the ending of the match, but they could not hold on as Green Bay would go on a 6-0 run to end the set and win with a score of 25-21.
The second set was more of the same as both teams were battling each other throughout the match, looking to take full momentum of the match.
There was never more than a four point gap between the teams but, in the second set it was a reverse of the first set, with Green Bay having the lead for most of the match. NIU came back to tie the game at 20-20 and then went on a 5-0 run to tie the match and win the set with a score of 25-20.
The competitiveness between these two teams seemed to only grow with each set. Green Bay came out the gates taking a 10-5 lead early on in set three. NIU would rally back, evening the score at 11-11.
The teams would stay close for the most part in the middle of the match before Green Bay would go on a 9-2 run to win the third set 25-18, which would be the largest margin of victory of any set between the two teams.
Green Bay, in the early part of the match, would take a 14-8 lead and looked to have full control. NIU would then seem to shift the momentum in their favor by continuing to chip away at Green Bay’s lead to eventually tie the game at 18-18. Green Bay would do just enough to pull away and win the set with a score of 25-22 and match 3-1.
Head coach Ray Gooden spoke on what he and his team can take away from a competitive game like this against a team like Green Bay.
“I think we are trying to figure out how versatile and how focused we have to be in the moment of each and every play,” Gooden said. “They didn’t give us any points; we had to earn a lot, and that’s how it’s going to be in our league, so we should learn that now so that we can get better at it moving forward.”
The Huskies look to bounce back from this loss with another tough test against the second-ranked University of Wisconsin Badgers at 6 p.m. Friday at home in DeKalb.
