DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University volleyball clinched its berth into the Mid-American Conference Tournament Saturday night with a resounding 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-16) sweep of the Buffalo Bulls at Victor E. Court on Senior Night.
 
"There's always so much emotion on Senior Night that you have to balance that to staying true to the mission," said head coach Ray Gooden. "I thought our group did a really good job with that. Everybody played for each other tonight and that was really positive. It was good for our group to be able to celebrate what our seniors have done, and our senior played some of their best volleyball tonight."
 
NIU (15-12, 9-8 MAC) became the last team into the field of six for the MAC Tournament when Toledo defeated Central Michigan earlier in the day, but the Huskies would have made the field anyway with their win over Buffalo. The Huskies last made the conference tournament in 2018, when seniors Angie Gromos (West Chicago, Ill./West Chicago), Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) and Jasmine Kemp (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb) were all freshmen and fifth-year senior Miranda Karlen (Evansville, Wis./Evansville) was a sophomore.
 
That quartet was honored prior to Saturday's match for Senior Night and proved to be instrumental in NIU's victory. In just her fifth start of the season, Gromos hit .500 with seven kills and became the first Huskie since Jenna Radtke in 2016 to have 10 blocks in a match.
 
"After the first few blocks, I was feeling pretty good," said Gromos following the win. "When everyone is playing well then you play even better. It was awesome to see that energy throughout the entire match."
 
Balensiefer also had a career-high in blocks with five to go with 33 assists and seven digs. Karlen had five digs and an assist as Kemp had one kill and two blocks. Kaitlyn Bell (De Soto, Kan./De Soto) led all players with 13 kills as Katie Jablonski added eight kills with 18 digs.
 
The Huskies overcame an 8-7 deficit in the opening set to take an 11-9 lead with a 4-1 run that was sparked by a Gromos kill and a block by Gromos and Balensiefer. Buffalo rallied back to tie the set at 17, but NIU quickly responded. The Huskies won the next seven points to take a 24-17 lead. Gromos had two kills and was in on three blocks with Balensiefer to give NIU set point. Bell locked up the set with her sixth kill that made the score 25-18. NIU held Buffalo to a .049 hitting percentage in the set and had six blocks.
 
Buffalo (12-17, 5-12 MAC) took an early lead to start the second, riding it to a 13-12 advantage. The Huskies then won five of the next seven points to take a 17-15 lead. NIU traded points with Buffalo the rest of the way to win the set 25-21 and go up 2-0 in the match. Powered by a pair of blocks from Gromos, NIU raced out to a 4-0 lead to start set three. The lead grew to six for the Huskies when an Ella Mihacevich (Brunswick, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) ace made the score 12-6.
 
NIU held Buffalo to a .000 hitting percentage in the eventual final set, using a 5-0 run highlighted by two blocks by Mihacevich and Gromos, to earn match point at 24-13. Buffalo fought off three match points, but Gromos locked up the sweep with her seventh kill of the night to give NIU the set 25-16 and the match 3-0.
 
NIU held Buffalo to .087 hitting for the night. The Huskies had 68 digs to the Bulls' 52, bolstered by Francesca Bertucci's match-high 24. NIU had 12 blocks on the night, it's second-highest total for the season behind the Huskies' 12.5 blocks in a five-set win at Miami last month.
 
The Huskies close out the regular season on Wednesday, November 17 against Western Michigan. First serve is set for 6 p.m. at Victor E. Court. For tickets, log on to NIUHuskies.com/MyHuskies or call the NIU Athletics Ticket Office at 815-753-PACK (7225).
 
--NIU--