BOWLING GREEN, OH – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team rallied from a 2-0 deficit Friday night at Stroh Center to force a deciding fifth set against the Bowling Green Falcons, but it was the hosts who came out on the right end of a 3-2 (25-21, 25-20, 24-26, 18-25, 15-13) win in the Mid-American Conference and season opener for both teams.
 
Junior JoDee Kovanda (Lockport, Ill./West Florida) led the Huskies with 16 kills in her NIU debut, hitting .457 with six digs and six blocks. Sophomore Katie Jablonski (Elburn, Ill./New Hampshire) had a double-double with 10 kills and 14 digs. Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) dished out 42 assists with seven digs. Samantha Juarez (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) led all players with a career-high 25 digs as Angie Gromos (West Chicago, Ill./West Chicago) tied a career-high with seven blocks.
 
"It was really good to get a chance to go out there and represent NIU again," said head coach Ray Gooden. "There were a lot of things we planned for, but credit Bowling Green for being a couple of points better. We're going to try and work on some things to improve and be better tomorrow."
 
Down two sets, NIU (0-1, 0-1 MAC) needed a good start to the third set. A 6-1 run highlighted by a block from Balensiefer and Gromos put the Huskies up 10-5. Bowling Green closed within one at 13-12 when a Jablonski kill started a 4-1 run that gave NIU a 17-13 lead. The lead grew to six at 22-16 following a Brianna Scuric (East Troy, Wis./East Troy) service ace. Kovanda gave the Huskies set point with a kill at 24-18, but the Falcons fought off all six set points to tie the set at 24. NIU bounced back with a Kennedy Wallace (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) kill to earn another set point and got a Bowling Green error to win the set 26-24 and stay alive in the match.
 
Bowling Green (1-0, 1-0 MAC) led early in the fourth only to see a 6-1 NIU run put the visiting Huskies up 11-7 on a block by Gromos and Kovanda. The Falcons got within two on a Petra Indova kill that put the score at 13-11, but a Wallace kill started a four-point run that gave NIU a 17-11 advantage. The Huskies led by as much as nine in the set when a Kovanda kill and another block by Kovanda and Gromos made the score 22-13. NIU held the Falcons to a .065 hitting percentage in the fourth set to tie the match with a 25-18 win.
 
The Falcons raced out to a 4-2 lead in the fifth behind two kills from Indova and one from Katelyn Meyer. NIU got within a point at 5-4 but a Katrin Trebichavska kill started a three-point Bowling Green run that put the hosts up 8-4. Sparked by a Gromos solo block, the Huskies won the next four points to tie the set at eight. The two sides traded points all the way up to 13-13, when an Indova kill and Julia Walz ace gave Bowling Green the set 15-13 and the match 3-2.
 
Bowling Green got off to a fast start offensively, hitting .294 in the opening set to the Huskies' .118 to take it 25-21. The Falcons then hit .441 in the second to take a 2-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 win.
 
Both teams hit .209 in the match. NIU held an 11.0-5.0 edge in blocks as the Falcons had an 87-68 advantage in digs. Meyer led Bowling Green with 20 kills as Trebichavska added 17. Hana Laube had a match-high 51 assists.
 
The two teams wrap up their weekend series on Saturday at 4 p.m.
 
--NIU--