Aug. 28, 2009

Final Stats

WIU - NIU Final Box

SIU - NIU Final Box

DeKALB,Ill. - The Northern Illinois volleyball team opened its season at the NIU Comfort Inn & Suites of Rochelle Invitational on Friday night with a split against a pair of intrastate opponents, defeating Western Illinois 3-0 in its first match and falling to Southern Illinois 3-1 in its second match of the day.

The Huskies (1-1) are now 7-1 in season and home openers under head coach Ray Gooden after taking down WIU (0-2), 25-13, 26-24, 25-18, in the Huskies' season opener on Friday afternoon. NIU hit .443 as a team and out-killed the Leathernecks 46-35.

"I thought the first match as a team was great," said Gooden. "Everybody did some positive things. The first set was great. Allison McGlaughlin did a great job starting us off this season with some good serves and then everyone joined in after that. It was nice to have a good, positive first match with a lot of positive results."

Three Huskies tallied double-figure kills as Allison McGlaughlin (Morton, Ill./Morton) led with 13, Meagan Schoenrock (Sylvania, Ohio/Northview) had 11, and Cassie Yates (LaPorte, Ind./LaPorte) had 10. Amanda Tadla (Oaklawn, Ill./Oaklawn) paced the offense with 41 assists and added eight digs, while Maddie Hughes (St. Charles, Ill./North) led the defense with 13 digs.

In NIU's evening match against the Salukis (2-0), the Huskies once again out-killed their opponent, 60-49, but SIU used an 18-4 blocking advantage to earn the win, 25-22, 28-30, 25-18, 26-24.

"In both matches today SIU got out-killed, but made it up in blocks," Gooden said. "They played a little bit smarter than we did tonight and used their experience well."

After dropping the first set, the Huskies were down to a match point, 25-24, from losing the second set before Mary Kurisch (LaCrosse, Wis./West Salem) registered the tying kill. Meghan Romo (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) then followed with a kill to give NIU match point, but SIU's Jennifer Berwanger matched Romo's kill to knot the score once again, 26-26. The teams then exchanged two more points apiece before Schoenrock ended the set with her third consecutive kill.

NIU hoped to ride that momentum from the second set into the third, but fell behind early, 8-4, and never recovered.

"The part that was disappointing in the third set was not getting off to a strong start," Gooden said. "It was hard to get momentum after that."

Both teams went back and forth for nearly the entire fourth set, but it was the Salukis who finally took a hold of the lead after a 24-24 tie at the end to finish the match on consecutive kills by Rachael Brown and Chandra Roberson.

"That game was for the taking," said Gooden. "We just couldn't get the momentum."

Schoenrock led NIU with 19 kills against SIU and McGlaughlin added 14. Tadla tallied 35 assists, while Kristin Hoffman (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) finished the match with 17. Hughes led the defense again with 19 digs.

"I think there are a lot of positives from tonight from the stand point that a lot of people can contribute to this team," Gooden said. "As a group we need to learn how to fight together though."

The Huskies wrap-up the NIU Comfort Inn & Suites of Rochelle Invitational tomorrow with two more matches at Victor E. Court. The first will be at 2 p.m. CT against Stephen F. Austin (1-1) and the second will be at 7 p.m. versus Illinois Chicago (1-1).