DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team enters the final week of Mid-American Conference play with a chance to earn a tournament berth as it hosts Western Michigan Thursday night at 6 p.m. and travels to Bowling Green Saturday for a 4 p.m. match against the Falcons.
 
NIU (8-20, 5-9 MAC) is one match back of 6-8 Kent State with two matches to play. The Huskies hold the tiebreaker with the Golden Flashes thanks to their win over Kent State at Victor E. Court on October 25. With Ohio and Buffalo at 7-7 and Eastern Michigan at 5-9, there are five teams in the hunt for the final three spots in next week's MAC Tournament.
 
"All we can do is control the things in front of us," said head coach Ray Gooden. "What we have in front of us is a match against one of our division rivals and we know it's going to be a barnburner. We're going to have to play our best and defend our home court against a really good team."
 
The Huskies have certainly been competitive this season with 36 of their 102 sets decided by two or three points. NIU has won 14 of those sets with 11 of them coming at Victor E. Court.
 
"It's been our thing all year long, and when we execute in end-of-set situations it's been very successful for us," Gooden said. "Last week was indicative of where we're getting to a situation where we're competitive and it's just a matter of finding ways to close out sets. I think our team has continued to realize that it can't be put on one person's shoulders, or a couple people. It's our whole team that has to execute from the beginning, in the middle and also the end."
 
NIU has won 12 of the last 13 meetings against Western Michigan, including a 3-2 (25-17, 22-25, 25-20, 20-25, 15-8) win in Kalamazoo, Mich. on Oct. 10. The Huskies hit .304 in the deciding set and held the Broncos to -.050. Peyton Tilly (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) led NIU with 14 kills in that match as Brinley Milbrath (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/John F. Kennedy) added 13. Milbrath set a new career-high in kills twice this past weekend, averaging 4.14 kills per set against Toledo and Ball State. After putting down 14 kills against the Rockets on November 8, Milbrath had 15 kills and hit .609 on Senior Night against Ball State.
 
Western Michigan enters the week 13-13 overall with a 4-10 record in MAC play. The Broncos dropped their matches last week against Ball State and Toledo. Outside Hitter Rachel Bontrager leads the MAC in kills with 3.76 kills per set. Bowling Green is tied for second in the MAC East at 9-5 and is 15-11 for the year. The Falcons swept Akron last Saturday after a four-set loss at Buffalo on November 8. Bowling Green is second in the MAC with 17.87 digs per set and third with a team hitting percentage of .218.
 
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