DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team opened its 2018 season Friday night with a five-set loss to the DePaul Blue Demons 3-2 (22-25, 25-14, 25-22, 22-25, 13-15) at Victor E. Court in the NIU Invitational.
 
"Both teams are trying to learn how to compete and win, and fight and battle, and DePaul did a little better job at taking care of things tonight than us," said head coach Ray Gooden following Friday's opener. "I thought we had some moments where we played some good volleyball. There are just some gritty plays that we have to learn from and get better at, and also continue to just do the things we're doing in practice and let that shine in the match."
 
Senior Meg Wolowicz (Manitowoc, Wis./Manitowoc Lincoln) led all players with 16 kills, adding six digs and three blocks while hitting .344. Jori Radtke (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) had 12 kills and four blocks. Chrystal McAlpin (Calumet Park, Ill./Shepard) led all players with seven blocks as Miranda Karlen (Evansville, Wis./Evansville) had a match-high 19 digs. Setters Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) and Amanda Krahl (Pearland, Texas/Appalachian State) had 30 and 16 assists, respectively.
 
NIU (0-1) jumped out to a 6-4 lead in the opening set on the strength on two Kennedy Wallace (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) kills. DePaul then rattled off three straight points to take a 7-6 lead. The Huskies battled back to take the lead at 15-14 on a block by Brinley Milbrath (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/John F. Kennedy) and Jasmine Kemp (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb), but three kills from the Blue Demons' Claire Anderson in the next four points put DePaul ahead 18-15. NIU got to within one at 22-21 on a Karlen ace, however back-to-back kills by Natalie Hayward and Isabel De La Rosa gave the opening set to DePaul 25-22.
 
The Huskies jumped right into action in the second set with an 8-1 run highlighted by two kills and a block from Wolowicz. NIU led by as much as 12 at 16-4 after two Radtke kills and a block by McAlpin and Milbrath. The Huskies hit .333 as a team in the second set while holding DePaul to a .034 mark. NIU's third block leveled the match, as Radtke and McAlpin blocked Hayward to give the Huskies a 25-14 win.
 
"We started off pretty strong, even though we lost the first set," said Radtke. "We came out even stronger in the second set. We could have been more consistent throughout the match with our energy and skill. It could have been better."
 
After playing to a 9-9 tie to open the third set, NIU ran off five straight points on Radtke's serve to take a 14-9 lead. DePaul (1-0) took advantage of some Huskie errors to get back into the set at 19-17. The Blue Demons then got within one at 22-21 on a kill by Emma Price but that would be as close as DePaul would get. Kills by Wallace and Kemp put NIU ahead 2-1 in the match as the Huskies took the third set 25-22.
 
NIU jumped out to a quick 5-2 lead in the fourth set, getting kills by McAlpin, Wolowicz, Wallace and Kemp. DePaul responded with a 7-2 run capped by an Avarie Evans-Allen service ace to take a 9-7 lead. The Blue Demons led 14-11 when a Wallace kill sparked a 6-0 Huskie run to give NIU a 17-14 lead. Once again, DePaul fought back to take a 19-18 lead on a block by Anderson and De La Rosa. A Radtke kill and Kennedy Shelley (Burlington, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) ace put NIU back ahead 20-19. However, a Hayward kill sparked a three-point run to put the Blue Demons in front 22-20. Radtke put down back-to-back kills to even the set at 22-22, but DePaul took the next three points to win the set 25-22 and force a deciding fifth set.
 
"I think we started worrying about the score, and I'll take responsibility for that," Gooden said about the fourth set. "We just had to keep playing. Every point is a fresh opportunity, and until we're able to just play through it, then we're just going to keep going through these growing pains."
 
The two sides traded the first eight points of the fifth, playing to a 4-4 tie. An NIU block and Wolowicz ace put the Huskies ahead 6-4. DePaul then won six of the next seven points to take a 10-7 lead on an Anderson kill. NIU closed to within one at 10-9 on a kill by McAlpin and a Blue Demons miscue. Kills by Anderson and Mattie Norris bookended a 4-0 DePaul run that gave the Blue Demons match point at 14-10. The Huskies fought off three set points to get to 14-13, but a Norris kill put DePaul on top 15-13 in the fifth and 3-2 for the match.
 
"We know we need to compete a lot harder, but this isn't a bad start," said Wolowicz. "No one should look at this as a bad loss, because this is us playing together and getting to know each other on the court. We played well, we just need to be more consistent."
 
DePaul hit .233 for the match and had 55 digs, while NIU hit .221 with 49 digs. The Huskies had 15 blocks in the match to the Blue Demons' four. Price led DePaul with 14 kills, hitting .324. Anderson had 13 kills and a team-high 16 assists.
 
"We've been doing some pretty good things in practice, but we weren't able to put it together fully tonight," said Gooden. "Credit to DePaul, they did a nice job. We have to continue to get better against even more experienced teams so we can get ready to have a good day tomorrow."
 
The Huskies will play two matches on Saturday. NIU will take on Xavier at 1 p.m. before closing the tournament with a 7 p.m. match against Oklahoma. The day begins at 11 a.m. when Oklahoma takes on DePaul.