KENT, Ohio – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team rallied from two sets down at the M.A.C. Center Friday night to force a fifth set against the Kent State Golden Flashes, but it was the Golden Flashes who came away with the 3-2 win (25-14, 25-22, 18-25, 21-25, 15-9).
 
"I was happy with how we battled back against a Kent State team that was hot at home," said head coach Ray Gooden. "We did a nice job in sets three and four. In the short set, it's all about momentum. They got out pretty big on us and we battled back but couldn't find that breakthrough in the end."
 
Meg Wolowicz (Manitowoc, Wis./Manitowoc Lincoln) led the match with 20 kills. It was her sixth match this season with at least 20 kills. Jori Radtke had 14 kills and 17 digs for her 12^th double-double of the year. Kennedy Wallace (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) had eight kills and hit a season-high .636. Miranda Karlen (Evansville, Wis./Evansville) led NIU with 23 digs. The setting tandem of Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) and Amanda Krahl (Pearland, Texas/Appalachian State) combined for 46 assists with Krahl dishing out a season-high 18.
 
Kent State (10-13, 3-6 MAC) opened the match on a 6-2 run, capped off by three straight kills from Melissa Kolurbasi and Lexi Mantas. The Huskies cut the deficit in half at 7-5 after kills by Radtke and Brinley Milbrath (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/John F. Kennedy). The Golden Flashes used a 4-1 run to go back up by five as a pair of Amy Kober kills made the score 11-6. Trailing 13-8, NIU used a Wolowicz kill to start a 4-1 run to get within two at 14-12.  Kent State pulled away from there. The Golden Flashes finished the set on an 11-2 run, running off seven straight points to earn set point at 24-13. A kill by Kober gave Kent State the set 25-14.
 
NIU (7-17, 5-4 MAC) and Kent State traded points to open the second set, with a Wallace kill putting the Huskies up 3-2. The Golden Flashes then won five of the next six points as kills by Kober and Danie Tyson gave the home team a 7-4 lead. Kent State extended its lead to six at 16-10 after three straight kills from Tyson and Mantas. NIU responded with a 5-1 run as a Chrystal McAlpin (Calumet Park, Ill./Shepard) kill got the Huskies within two at 17-15. Kent State extended its lead to five, 22-17, after back-to-back kills from Kober and Kolurbasi. The Huskies fought off two set points, but a solo block by Lexi Mantas gave Kent State the set 25-22 and a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The Golden Flashes broke a 5-5 tie in the third set with a 4-1 run, as a pair of Myla King kills put Kent State up 9-6. NIU tied the set 9-9 on three straight kills from Wolowicz, Milbrath, and McAlpin. Those three points sparked a 9-2 NIU run that put the Huskies in the lead 15-11. The lead grew to six at 18-12 after kills by Radtke and Wolowicz. NIU took its largest lead of the set at 23-14, taking advantage of three straight Kent State errors. Radtke gave NIU set point with a kill at 24-17. Two points later, a Kent State service error gave the Huskies the set 25-18 and kept NIU alive in the match. NIU's offense came alive in the third as the Huskies hit .345 in the set.
 
NIU took a quick 2-1 lead to start the fourth set. Kent State then won seven of the next eight points, taking four in a row on kills by Mantas and Tyson to take an 8-3 lead. The Golden Flashes led 11-7 when NIU won three straight points, capped by a McAlpin kill, to get within one at 11-10 and force a Kent State timeout. The two teams then traded points with back-to-back kills by Tyson and Mantas putting the Golden Flashes ahead 16-14. NIU then went on a 5-1 run, getting four kills from Wolowicz, to take a 19-17 lead.
 
Kent State ran off three consecutive points to take a 20-19 lead, but NIU answered with kills from Wolowicz and Amanda Rullan Vilanova (Bayamon, Puerto Rico/Savannah State) and a block to regain the lead 22-20. After an Ashley Makruski kill cut the NIU lead to one, the Huskies won the final three points to win the set 25-21 and force a fifth set. McAlpin earned the final two points for NIU with a kill and a solo block.
 
The Golden Flashes took a 3-0 lead to start the fifth, getting two Klober kills. Kent State extended the lead to five at 7-2 on a Mantas kill and an ace from Erin Gardner. NIU then won five of the next seven points, as a pair of Wolowicz kills got the Huskies within two at 9-7. The two teams traded points up to 11-9. Kent State won the last four points, as a Mantas kill gave the Golden Flashes the set 15-9 and the match 3-2.
 
"We got off to a slow start, but got better as the match went on," Gooden said. "We just had a slow start to the fifth and they capitalized. We were chasing to get those points back and if we could have just gotten one of them back we had a chance."
 
Kent State hit .288 for the match, with NIU posting a .191 hitting percentage. The Golden Flashes also held a 97-80 advantage in digs. Kober and Mantas each had 17 kills to lead Kent State as setter Alex Haffner had 61 assists.
 
NIU plays at Ohio on Saturday night at 5 p.m., with the match being telecast on ESPN+.
 
--NIU--