DeKALB — The Huskies struggled against the Bowling Green State University Friday night and never won a set, losing 3-0.

In the first set, Bowling Green got off to an early lead with a score of 10-6. NIU was never ever able to take the lead and lost the first set 25-22. The deciding factor was kills, with Bowling Green finishing with 15 kills, while the Huskies finished with nine. 

Head coach Ray Gooden spoke of the Huskies never being able to tie the match or take the lead at any point. 

“Every time we took a breath was when they went on another run,” Gooden said in a Friday NIU Athletics news release. “We kept chasing but were never able to tie the match or take the lead.”

The Huskies got themselves into a hole in the early going of the second set with BGSU taking a 8-3 lead. Huskies came back to close the gap to two with a score of 14-12. BGSU responded by going on a 6-0 run and eventually won the set by a good margin with a score of 25-16. Bowling Green finished the set hitting for .294 and took a 2-0 set lead.

In the third set, BGSU seized control once again and took a lead of 7-2. NIU tried to take momentum from the Falcons by going on a 7-0 run in the middle of the set, trimming the Falcons lead to one. The Falcons responded with a 5-0 run to create separation before they went on to win the set 25-22 and match 3-0.

Junior outside hitter Katie Jablonski finished with another double-double, with 11 kills and 39 assists. Freshman outside hitter Nikolette Nedic finished with nine kills of her own for the huskies. 

Huskies fall to 8-8 on the season and hope to bounce back at their next game when they face off against the University of Miami-Ohio at 4 p.m. Saturday in Oxford, Ohio.