November 7, 2003

HUSKIES LOSE THIRD STRAIGHT MATCH, GROUND IN MAC WEST WITH 3-0 LOSS TO DIVISION FOE CENTRAL MICHIGAN

Box Score

MT. PLEASANT, MI-- A pair of heartbreaking two-point losses to start play Friday (Nov. 6) doomed the Northern Illinois University women's volleyball team to a 3-0 (33-31, 34-32, 30-21) loss to Central Michigan University in Mid-American Conference action at CMU's Rose Arena.

NIU falls to 16-10 in losing its third consecutive match for just the second time this season. More importantly, the Huskies fall farther back in the MAC West standings at 5-8 in league play. Central Michigan, on the other hand, remains in first place in the division with an 8-5 MAC mark to compliment a 14-12 overall slate.

"As far as the standings go, we aren't even really paying attention right now," Huskie head coach Ray Gooden said. "Either way, we are going to have to play someone Tuesday (Nov. 18) night, so we just need to start playing with some pride right now. That is the big issue for us."

Central Michigan stormed out of the gate early, grabbing a 5-1 lead in game one behind a pair of blocks and two Emily Lovejoy kills. The Huskie defense quickly erased that deficit, however, as three consecutive block solos and a Tera Lobdell (Plymouth, MN / Robbinsdale Armstrong) kill evened the contest at 5-5.

Corinne Walsh (Evergreen Park) scored on an uncontested kill to push the Huskie lead as high as four points at 14-10, but watched the Chippewas battle back to a 21-21 tie on a Lobdell attack originally called in by the line judge, but overruled as out by the head referee. That seemed to spur NIU, who scored the next three points including two on back-to-back Kate McCullagh (Woodstock) service aces.
No lead was safe, however, as the Huskies failed to close out the contest despite having four opportunities to score game point. CMU outside hitter Melissa Reynolds notched a service ace with the scored tied 31-31and Lovejoy put-away her eighth kill of the game to hand NIU a 33-31 loss.

"It's tough to lose a game like that," Gooden added. "To have chance to win and lose it is hard, but we bounced back and played really well in game two anyway."

Once again, the Huskies dug themselves into a 5-1 hole in game two only to fight back and tie the game at 8-8 on a Chippewa attack error. As if on cue, NIU then pushed itself to another four-point lead at 18-14 on back-to-back kills Lobdell kills.

This time, Northern Illinois extended its advantage as high as five at 21-16 before watching CMU come back, closing to within one with consecutive Lovejoy kills that made the score 22-21. That was as close as the Chippewas could get, however, until a Tamara Fant kill and Walsh attack error gave CMU the lead back at 27-26.

NIU played the role of spoiler this time around, fighting off six game points and sitting even at 32-32 after a McCullagh kill. The Huskies could not turn the corner, however, as Fant closed out another thriller with a successful swing that gave Central Michigan the 34-32 victory.
Game three was not close for very long, as the Huskies saw a 5-4 lead evaporate and found themselves down by as many as eight (19-11) after a run that saw CMU score eight of nine points. The Chippewas pushed that cushion to 12 on three separate occasions (25-13, 26-14, 27-15), and eventually cruised to a 30-21 win that closed out the match.

Megan Markowski (Glen Ellyn / Wheaton St. Francis) posted another solid night, hitting .412 with nine kills and adding two blocks on defense. Lobdell paced all attackers with a match-high total of 17 kills. But, as a team, the Huskies hit just .175 including an .065 mark in the deciding third game. CMU, on the other hand, attacked the net at a consistent .281 clip, failing to hit less than .275 in any of the three contests.

"We knew coming in that they were a fast team," Gooden explained. "They score a lot of point off the kill based solely on how fast their offense is. It wasn't so much bad defense on our part so much as good execution on their end that allowed them to be successful."

NIU closes out its last regular season road-trip of the season with at Eastern Michigan University Saturday (Nov. 7). EMU---one of the three teams tied for the lead in the MAC West heading into action Friday (Nov. 6)---and the Huskies are scheduled to put the first serve in play at 7:00 p.m. (EST).

-30- --Copy by Brian Kedzior