FARGO – Head Coach Ray Gooden became the NIU (3-1) volleyball program's all-time wins leader with 267th career victory in the NDSU Classic versus Bradley (2-2) Friday afternoon, defeating the Braves, 3-0. Mary Grace Kelly (Strongsville, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) and Jenna Radtke (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) each had 10+ kills, led by Kelly's 11. Taylor Krage (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) led all servers with three aces.

Gooden, who tied the program's record for career wins last weekend versus Loyola, was very appreciative of the people who built the program and for the players that competed at NIU.

"In some sense, it's a number, but it's more importantly about all of those that wore the jersey and have been a part of the staffs here. There have been some great names that have coached here. I just happen to have been fortunate enough to at least be in the group with the Pete Waite's and the Lou-Jean Moyer's.

"Those types of people and the teams that they were able to have over that period of time, some parts of our program we think are better, others we still have to work on but I'm very fortunate to be a part of it and to be an NIU Huskie," said Gooden.

Though they played each other over 500 miles away from home, the Huskies and Braves played like in-state rivals as each team swung hard and heavy in the set, totaling 36 kills.

The Braves paced the opening set, taking advantage of early NIU errors, while hammering the ball to lead by as much as two points in the embers of the match, 19-17. A 3-0 kill rally by the Huskies forced a BU timeout and put NIU back in control at 20-19.

With Northern Illinois University serving the set point, BU forced a deuce set, however, the Huskies were un-phased by the Braves late push as they won the opening set, 28-26. Nine of NIU's final 11 games won in the set were kill points, resulting in 20 kills in the frame for the Huskies.

"We really worked hard this week to be aggressive because we learned a lot last week about staying aggressive. Being on the road especially, I thought that was really important to us," Gooden added. "Bradley did a really good job in the first game. We played back and forth with them and we were able to turn it on and the longer we played, the better we got."

Trailing 4-2 in the second set, an 8-2 run by the Huskies put them in control for much of the set as they continued to grow their lead, 17-10. Bradley rallied late in the stanza to bring it back within two points, 20-18 but NIU would take the set, 25-20, recording 11 kills, two aces and three blocks.

After leading 8-6 in the third, the Huskies went on two separate 5-0 scoring runs and built its first double-digit lead of the match, growing the lead to 13 points where NIU would finish the set and the match, 25-12.

NIU recorded 41 kills in the contest, hitting .337 in 89 attacks during the match.

The Huskies will take on South Dakota State this afternoon in their second match of the NDSU Classic at 4:30 p.m. in Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse.