DeKALB, IL – Led by a match-high 16 kills from Peyton Tilly (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) and seven blocks from Jasmine Kemp (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb), the Northern Illinois University volleyball got a split of their opening weekend in Mid-American Conference play with a 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-18, 25-22) win over the Eastern Michigan Eagles at Victor E. Court.
 
"Every time we're getting a chance to play, we're learning stuff about ourselves," said head coach Ray Gooden. "We were able to be opportunistic when we needed to. Our service did a real nice job and I thought that our left sides did a really solid job putting pressure on Eastern Michigan who does a really good job with their blocking defense."
 
Tilly's 16 kills are a season-high, eclipsing the 13 she had Friday night against Central Michigan. Kaitlyn Bell (De Soto, Kan./De Soto) added 12 kills while hitting .235. Setter Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./Lafayette) dished out 42 assists and added nine digs. Miranda Karlen (Evansville, Wis./Evansville) led the match with 18 digs.
 
NIU (4-12, 1-1 MAC) and Eastern Michigan split the first two sets with each winning by a score of 25-17. The Huskies came out firing in the opening set, hitting .308 to the Eagles' .182. NIU won nine of the last 12 points in the first as a Tilly kill and a block by Tilly and Kennedy Wallace (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) gave the Huskies' the set. Eastern Michigan responded with an 8-0 run early in the second set to take a 9-4 lead. The Eagles grew their lead to eight at 15-7 following kills from Jayden Otto and Samantha Basham. Eastern Michigan hit .333 in the second set to tie the match at a set apiece.
 
The Huskies won six of the first nine points in the third set, getting two kills from Wallace as well as an ace from Karlen. Eastern Michigan came back with a 6-1 run capped off by a pair of NIU errors to take a 9-8 lead. With the set tied at 11, a Bell kill sparked a three-point NIU run that put the Huskies ahead 14-11. The Eagles battled back to tie the set at 16 but a Tilly kill and a Samantha Juarez (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) ace gave NIU an 18-16 lead.
 
"That was an important kill," Tilly said of the play that put the Huskies back up in the set. "It felt really good to get the momentum back and get the team really loud again and then go on and win the set."
 
The two sides traded the next three points before a Bell kill sparked a 5-0 Huskies run that gave NIU the third set 25-18 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
"Tonight we were winning points and earning points at critical times," Gooden said. "Late in the third set we needed to make a play and we did. A lot of that comes from our serve, then our serve helped our block and our block helped our defense."
 
Eastern Michigan (5-9, 0-2 MAC) got off to a fast start in the fourth, taking a 9-5 lead. The Huskies then won six of the next seven points, with kills by Wallace and Bell giving NIU an 11-10 lead. The set was tied six times before back-to-back kills from Bell put the Huskies up 21-19. NIU had its first match point at 24-21 after a Tilly kill. The Eagles fought off one match point, but Tilly punctuated the match with her 16^th kill to give NIU the fourth set 25-22 and the match 3-1.
 
NIU hit .199 for the match while Eastern Michigan posted a .215 hitting percentage. The Eagles held a 56-54 edge in blocks with the Huskies holding a 9-7 advantage in blocks and a 5-2 advantage in service aces. Cassie Haut led the Eagles with 15 kills and added five blocks. Franki Strefling had a double-double with 14 kills and 12 digs.
 
The Huskies go on the road for its next three matches, starting on Friday, Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. at Ball State.
 
--NIU--