COLUMBIA, Mo. - Despite a rally in the third set, the NIU women's volleyball (25-6) season came to a close at No. 18 Missouri (26-5) in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday night as the Huskies fell to the Tigers, 16-25, 13-25, 20-25. Senior Mary Grace Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) led the Huskies with eight kills in the match while Jenna Radtke (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) hit .667 with six kills. 

Lauren Zielinski (Oak Forest, Ill./Marist) tallied five kills and a .556 clip.

The Tigers hit a whopping .404 in the match, led by Melanie Crow and Carly Kan, who recorded 17 and 10 kills respectively. Kan also led the team with 14 digs in the match. Mizzou tallied eight service aces in the match.

"Missouri was a step ahead of us and played error free. I thought they did a good job of taking care of their side of the net and putting us under a lot of pressure," said Head Coach Ray Gooden. "I think at times though, our team did some nice things as well. We put together some nice serving runs and handled the ball when we needed to to score in some key spots. 

"Unfortunately though, we weren't able to put all of those things together in significant runs to put some pressure on to those guys. Credit to Missouri and the Kreklows for what they do," Gooden added.

In front of 2,119 fans at the Hearnes Center, the Tigers settled in early as it got the Huskies out of system early and often to take a 10-6 lead. After a Radtke attack was stabbed through the block and to the floor, NIU found its balance as it forced Missouri into awkward possession in service return as it committed three errors to tie the match, 10-10. 

After Crow tallied her first kill from the back row, the Tigers shifted into their best rotation to reclaim the lead, 17-10, and did not acquiesce the lead as they won the set, 25-16.

The second set was all Mizzou as it jumped out to a 9-3 lead through a Huskie timeout. Trailing by 11 points, Northern Illinois University attempted to rally back as climbed back to within eight points but the MU momentum was too much as NIU entered intermission with a 2-0 deficit in the match, 25-13.

The Huskies came out with confidence in the third set and jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the frame and then traded point-for-point until Missouri reclaimed the lead, 7-6.

Crow led the Tigers offense to an 18-9 lead until Kelly and Meg Wolowicz (Manitowoc, Wis./Manitowoc Lincoln), who finished with seven kills, sparked the Huskies to a three-point run to close the gap. 

With the heavy swinging hands of Taylor Krage (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) and Bri Horwath (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) and precise service by Chandler Kinley (Lexington, Ky./Lafayette), NIU climbed back to within four points, 24-20, but despite the team's best efforts, Mizzou would set up a perfect return for Courtney Eckenrode as she closed the match with a kill to advance MU to a second round matchup with Purdue, 25-20.

In the Huskies post game press conference, Gooden reflected on the team's accomplishments and the progress it made over the last year.

"I am incredibly proud of what are team has been able to accomplish this season. I think we've been able to do some special things with the runs we've been able to go on," he said. 

"We won 20 of our last 22 matches, led by Mary and Jenna, who a year ago vowed to make things different after losing to Ohio in the MAC Championship in Athens, Ohio and I thought with them and the other four seniors did an amazing job leading this group and putting us into a spot we haven't been to in awhile and a spot we'd like to return to again," Gooden finished.

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