The Opening Serve
Off to their best start since 2003, the Huskies will look to change that “best start since” year to 1998 against Bradley as they wrap up a season-opening five-match home stand with an unblemished record thus far. Back in 1998, NIU started 7-0 and would go on to play in the NCAA Tournament.
The Huskies enter the match after a 4-0 run to win the NIU Invitational over the weekend, winning 12 of 15 sets. The tournament was highlighted by an exciting five-set victory over 2009 NCAA Tournament qualifier College of Charleston, in which the Huskies ended the fifth set with seven straight points. NIU also took down Chicago State and South Dakota in three set, while using four sets to defeat Oakland.
Bradley comes to Victor E. Court after hosting a tournament of their own over the weekend. The Braves went 2-1 to tie for the best record in the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational, but took second place after losing to Southeast Missouri State in four sets in the finale, giving the 2-1 Redhawks the tiebreaker. In its two wins, BU swept Western Illinois and beat South Carolina-Upstate in five sets.
The All-Time Series
NIU leads the all-time series against Bradley, 11-3. In last season’s match-up on Sept. 1, the Huskies swept the Braves, and have swept the Braves in each of the prior two meetings, coming in 2008 and 2005.
Last Match-Up Against Bradley
For the fourth time in its first five matches in 2009, the Northern Illinois volleyball team faced an Illinois opponent and came out on top for its third victory versus an instate school, defeating Bradley, 25-20, 25-20, 25-13, on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at the Markin Center.
The Huskies (4-1), who are now 11-3 all-time against Bradley (3-2), were in command for nearly the entire match, trailing briefly only three times. After cruising through the first set without trailing, the Huskies tackled their largest deficit of the night in the second set, 10-6, by getting a kill by Cassie Yates, back-to-back kills by Allison McGlaughlin, a joust kill by Amanda Tadla, and another kill by McGlaughlin to give NIU an 11-10 lead.
The teams then exchanged points until NIU broke a 13-13 tie with help from a service error by Bradley's Skylar Lesan and kills from Meagan Schoenrock and Mary Kurisch. From there, the Huskies were able to ride the run to win the set and carried the momentum into the third set to help open an insurmountable 13-6 lead after another kill by McGlaughlin.
For the fifth match this season, the Huskies out-killed their opponent, 54-33, and out-hit the Braves .393 to .210. Yates led NIU with a career-high tying 18 kills, along with a .600 attack percentage and three blocks. McGlaughlin tallied her second double-double of the season with 14 kills and 11 digs to go with a .480 attack percentage. Tadla ran the offense efficiently with 45 assists and Maddie Hughes led the defense with 14 digs.
Meet The Braves
The Braves return nine letterwinners and four starters from a 2009 team that finished 10th in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 9-23, 0-18 league record. As a team, Bradley has been outscored 208-197, but holds an advantage in attack percentage (.210-.190) and digs (252-242).
The Bradley attack is led by Madelyn Ervin, who is averaging 2.92 kills per set and has 42.5 points in BU’s three matches. Jennifer Sykes and Shelly Mueller run the offense. Sykes averages 10.33 assists per set, while Mueller averages 8.71.
On defense, Allie Falter leads the team in blocks with 1.17 per set. Lauren Zerante leads the back row with 3.50 digs per set.
Streaks
In their four-match winning streak, the Huskies have out-killed (216-157), out-hit (.304-.167), and out-dug (227-181) every opponent this season. NIU has also served better than each foe with 35 aces and only seven reception errors.
Kristin Hoffman has recorded an ace in each of the first four matches. So has Lauren Wicinski, including three with five or more.
Sarah Angelos has registered a hitting percentage above .333 in each of her first four matches, including a 7-for-7 performance to start the season against Chicago State on Aug. 27. Mary Kurisch has nearly done the same, hitting above .318.
Kurisch has also scored 10 or more points in each of the first four matches. Wicinski has done even better by scoring at least 17.5 points in every match, highlighted by a 28-point outburst against College of Charleston on Aug. 28.
Kurisch and Wicinski have each recorded a block in every match as well.
Maddie Hughes has totaled 10 or more digs in each of the last three matches, including two 24-dig contests.
MAC Leaders (As of Aug. 30)
NIU leads the Mid-American Conference in team hitting percentage (.304), while the Huskies rank second in assists (13.47/set) and kills (14.40/set). NIU also ranks third in aces (2.33/set).
Sarah Angelos and Mary Kurisch ranks first (.458) and second (.446), respectively, in hitting percentage.
Lauren Wicinski leads the league in aces (1.20/set) and points (86.5), and ranks third in kills (4.20/set).
Kristin Hoffman ranks second in assists (11.71/set).
Maddie Hughes ranks fourth in digs (4.71/set).
MAC Player of the Week
In her first weekend of collegiate competition, freshman Lauren Wicinski took home the Mid-American Conference West Division Player of the Week award. Wicinski led the team with 86.5 points (5.77/set), 63 kills (4.20/set), and a whopping 18 aces (1.20/set) as she helped the Huskies go 4-0 to win the NIU Invitational, earning an all-tournament selection. She also hit .274, with four assists, eight blocks, 34 digs (2.27/set), had only two errors in 55 reception attempts, and notched two double-doubles. In a sweep of Chicago State, she hit .500 with nine kills, six aces, and three blocks for 17.5 points. In a four-set win over Oakland, she had 17 kills, 14 digs, two aces, and one block for 19.5 points. In a sweep of South Dakota, she totaled 15 kills with a .345 attack percentage, five aces, and two blocks for 21.5 points. In a five-set win over 2009 NCAA Tournament qualifier College of Charleston, she tallied 22 kills, 15 digs, five aces, and two blocks for 28 points.
The Victor E. Court Advantage
The Huskies are 80-48 at Victor E. Court and 8-1 in home and season openers since 2002. In those nine seasons, NIU has finished with a home record above .500 eight times.
Illinois Dominance
Since 2002, NIU is 27-14 against intrastate opponents.
Gooden Plenty
With the stellar start to the 2010 campaign, ninth-year head coach Ray Gooden improved his record to 133-121 at NIU, moving into second place on the program’s win list. The 2006 Mid-American Conference Co-Coach of the Year has a 2006 MAC West Division regular season championship under his belt, along with NIU’s first All-American selection (Kate McCullagh, 2006), two MAC Player of the Year selections (Kate McCullagh in 2006, Maddie Hughes in 2009), 14 All-MAC selections, four MAC All-Freshman selections, and nine Academic All-MAC selections.
A Class Above
The NIU volleyball team has held the highest grade-point average of all Huskie sports for each of the last two years and in five of the last six semesters. In the latest academic progress report, the Huskies score of 991 ranks in the top 20 percent of all volleyball teams in the country. With nine Academic All-MAC honorees since 2004, the Huskies have taken home back-to-back American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic awards for the first time in school history. Additionally, since 2002, the program has had 26 Victory Scholars (3.50+ GPA) and 32 Huskie Scholars (3.00-3.49 GPA).
Up Next
The Huskies travel to Chicago this weekend for the UIC Invitational, which will be held at the UIC Pavilion. NIU will face Kennesaw State on Friday at 5 p.m. On Saturday, the Huskies will take on Memphis at noon and Illinois Chicago at 7 p.m.
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