Women's Volleyball | November 14
DEKALB, Ill. – The sixth-seeded Northern Illinois University volleyball team will take on the seven seed Ohio Bobcats in the first round of the 2018 Mid-American Conference Volleyball Championship, hosted by Miami, on Thursday night at 6 p.m.
The Huskies finished the regular season 9-7 in conference play after splitting last weekend's matches against Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan at Victor E. Court. NIU rallied from 2-1 down against the Chippewas on Nov. 9 to win 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-12). The Huskies had a season-high 21 blocks in the win, with 10 coming in the final two sets. On Nov. 10, NIU took on Eastern Michigan in a match that determined who would be the fifth seed for this weekend's tournament. The Eagles won the match 3-1 (25-23, 25-27, 19-25, 25-21), leading to NIU's matchup with Ohio Thursday.
NIU and Ohio faced off on Oct. 20 in a five-set match that took nearly three hours at the Ohio Convocation Center. NIU won the first set 25-23, with the Bobcats winning the next two sets 27-25 and 25-17. The Huskies fought off three match points in the fourth set to take it 32-30. NIU hit .562 in the fifth set, holding Ohio to a -.176 to win it 15-7 for its first five-set win of the season. The Huskies have won its last two five-set matches since.
Meg Wolowicz (Manitowoc, Wis./Manitowoc Lincoln) led the match with 24 kills, hitting .293.
Jori Radtke (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) had a double-double with a career-high 19 kills and 11 digs.
Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) also had a double-double, dishing out a season-high 60 assists with 20 digs.
Ohio finished the MAC season 7-9, going 3-3 over its last six matches. The Bobcats lost its matches to Bowling Green and Miami, the top-two teams in the MAC, last weekend to close conference play. Jaime Kosiorek leads a balanced Bobcats offense with 2.90 kills per set, with Lizzie Stephens adding 2.83 kills per set. Kosiorek leads the MAC with 50 aces on the year. Setter Vera Giacomazzi is fifth in the MAC with 9.15 assists per set.
Thursday's match, and every match of the MAC Volleyball Championship, will be broadcast on ESPN+. ESPN's new direct-to-consumer video platform is available at a cost of $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. It is accessible via the ESPN App on both iOS and Android devices, desktop, and TV-connected devices such as Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, and Chromecast. ESPN+ is available for a seven-day free trial and can be used on up to five streaming devices simultaneously.
The winner of Thursday's match will face the third-seeded Ball State Cardinals on Friday at 6 p.m.
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