DeKALB – The NIU volleyball team dropped its final match of the NIU Invitational Sunday afternoon to Iowa in straight sets, 3-0. The Hawkeyes, who went a perfect 3-0 during the tournament, claimed the tournament championship with the victory. The Huskies closed its opening weekend with a 2-1 clip.

NIU's Taylor Krage (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) recorded nine kills in the match with two service aces, eight digs and an assisted block, sharing the kills lead with Mary Grace Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit).

"We've had this thing with Iowa in our last few meetings where the end of the sets are by a play or two. I think in the first set we started pretty slow and they came out fired up and they played pretty physical, doing some things that we hadn't seen yet or weren't prepared for," said Head Coach Ray Gooden. "In the rest of the sets were up at 15 but we weren't able to close them out."

The Hawkeyes won the opening set, 25-20, despite NIU's late four-point rally at set-point to even the score. Though Northern Illinois University finished even in digs with Iowa, UI amassed 15 kills. The Huskies were unable to take advantage of Iowa's 13 errors in the stanza.

After the Hawkeyes jumped out and maintained a three-point lead in the second set, NIU rallied back and tied the match on a kill by Krage, 9-9, on a 3-1 scoring run by NIU. Exchanging ties until the waning games of the match, emphatic kills by Kelly, Radtke, and Meg Wolowicz (Manitowoc, Wis./Manitowoc Lincoln), NIU forced the Hawkeyes to take a timeout with a 22-20 lead.

Iowa entered intermission with a 2-0 lead in the contest as it went on a 5-0 scoring run to take the stanza, 25-20.

After leading during the third media timeout, NIU was unable to stop a 6-1 Iowa scoring run that allowed the Hawkeyes to reclaim the lead, 18-16. After a timeout and a rally of its own, Northern Illinois reclaimed its position in front, 23-22, on a block by Wolowicz. Following a timeout, the Hawkeyes won the final three points and sealed the match, 25-23.

Iowa's Lauren Brobst, who finished the afternoon with 16 kills and a .455 hitting percentage, earned tournament MVP honors and led all attackers in the match.

For NIU, Brianna Horwath (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) and Wolowicz earned all-tournament accolades.

The Huskies will return to action next Friday and Saturday when it takes on Bradley, North Dakota State and South Dakota State in the NDSU Classic in Fargo, N.D. Sept. 2 and 3. Gooden will attempt to become the program's all-time wins leader during the weekend with 267 victories.

ALL-NIU INVITATIONAL TEAM
Lauren Brobst, Iowa (MVP)
Megan Buzzerio, Iowa
Annika Olsen, Iowa
Brianna Horwath, NIU
Meg Wolowicz, NIU
Brittany Maxwell, DePaul
Delilah Wolf, Loyola