DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team wraps up its stretch of five road matches in the last six this weekend when it travels to Akron and Buffalo. The Huskies take on the Zips Friday night at 6 p.m. and the Bulls Saturday at 5 p.m.
 
NIU (6-14, 3-3 MAC) split a pair of five-set matches last weekend against Western Michigan and Miami. Led by 14 kills from Peyton Tilly (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) and a career-high 13 from Brinley Milbrath (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/John F. Kennedy), the Huskies defeated the Broncos in Kalamazoo 3-2 (25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-8). NIU raced out to an 8-1 lead in the final set and hit .304 to Western Michigan's -.050. Last Saturday, NIU took a 2-1 lead in the match against Miami before the RedHawks won the final two sets to win the match. Kaitlyn Bell (De Soto, Kan./De Soto) led the Huskies with 15 kills in the match. Kennedy Wallace (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) added 11 kills and was in on six of NIU's eight blocks.
 
"I think the thing for us is we want to compete," said head coach Ray Gooden. "By playing these long matches, we're competing against teams and I think at times we feel good about what we're doing. There are other times where we just go through some levels of inconsistency that we're still trying to work through. We know that all of our matches in the league are going to be like this and be challenges. I thought the group prepared well last week and it showed, especially against Western Michigan. We're hoping to see more positive steps and continue to take those into another tough weekend."
 
Akron (12-5, 5-1 MAC) currently leads the Mid-American Conference East Division by one match over Ohio, Bowling Green and Miami. The Zips have won 10 of their last 11 matches after splitting four-set matches against Ohio and Kent State last weekend. Akron is second in the conference in opponent hitting percentage, holding opponents to .173. Ashley Richardson is second in the MAC in hitting percentage at .367 with setter Emily Weigand second in both assists (9.95/set) and service aces (0.45/set).
 
"Akron runs an offense that has a real nice tempo to it," Gooden said. "It's a tempo that we're working our way towards as well. They have more kids that are upperclassmen that are starting to understand it more and are having some success. Their experience and the way their playing is why they're winning a lot because they put so much pressure on teams. We're going to have to be on our game offensively, especially in a tough place to play."
 
Buffalo (5-13, 1-5 MAC) has lost its last four matches entering the weekend. The Bulls defeated NIU in five sets at Victor E. Court last weekend. Junior middle blocker Lexi Nordmann is fifth in the conference in blocks with 1.08 per set.
The Huskies return to Victor E. Court October 25-26 to host Kent State and Ohio on Homecoming Weekend. NIU will take on Kent State on Friday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. and Ohio on Saturday, Oct. 26. The match time for the Ohio match has been changed to 7:30 p.m. after being originally announced as 6 p.m.
 
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