Sept. 20, 2014

Final Stats

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team was unable to get its offense on track Saturday morning in Santa Barbara, California, as the Huskies lost to Santa Clara, 3-0.
 
The Huskies (7-6) struggled to contain the Broncos’ (9-3) offense, as SCU outkilled NIU, 53-29, and recorded a .363 attack percentage.
 
“I think Santa Clara taught us that playing consistent, high-level volleyball is important to our success,” said NIU head coach Ray Gooden. “We had moments where we were doing positive things, but we couldn’t put multiple plays together in the first two sets. Third set, we were finally able to put the set into certain measuring points. As we got to 20, I thought we had a good chance to be successful, but they turned a couple of plays on us and ended up winning the match.”
 
SCU set the tone early, racing out to a 4-0 lead that quickly became a 9-3 advantage. Kills from Mary Grace Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit), Emily Paschke (Winfield, Ill./West Chicago Community) and Mackenzie Roddy (San Bernardino, Calif./Cajon) helped close that deficit down to 12-8 for the Huskies. NIU continued to close the gap with blocks from Kelly and Jenna Radtke (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) made it a 15-13 lead for the Broncos. Yet, that would be all the closer the Huskies could get, as SCU capped the set with an 8-2 run to claim a 25-17 win.
 
NIU answered the call in the second set, using kills from Roddy and Alexis Gonzalez (Fresno, Calif./Bullard) to take a 3-0 lead. SCU quickly responded with a 3-0 run of its own to tie the set, but the Huskies responded with kills from Paschke, and Kelly to reclaim the lead at 7-4. NIU kept rolling and held a 10-7 lead. That’s when the Broncos embarked on a lengthy run to take a 19-12 lead on the Huskies. That extended rally proved to be enough for SCU to claim a 25-15 second set win, as the Broncos held the Huskies under a .200 attack percentage for the second-straight set.
 
The Broncos made the first move in the third set, using two kills and two blocks to earn a 7-4 lead. SCU expanded that lead to 10-6, but the Huskies rallied with kills from Roddy and Brianna Horwath (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) – along with some Bronco errors – to force a 13-13 tie. The two sides traded points until 16-16, when five Bronco kills in a six-point span gave SCU a 21-17 edge. The Broncos used that late run to cruise to a 25-22 set win.
 
Kelly led the Huskies with 11 kills and Roddy added nine spikes in the loss. Defensively, Anna Brereton (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) posted 13 digs.
 
NIU caps its California trip tonight when they take on the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos at 9 p.m. CT.