MOUNT PLEASANT, MI — The Northern Illinois University women's volleyball team rallied to force a fifth set Thursday night against the Central Michigan Chippewas at McGuirk Arena, but it was Central Michigan that came away with the five-set win 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 15-11).
Katie Jablonski (Elburn, Ill./New Hampshire) led four Huskies in double figure kills with 16 and added 19 digs.
JoDee Kovanda (Lockport, Ill./West Florida) and
Kennedy Wallace (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) each had 15 kills as
Kaitlyn Bell (De Soto, Kan./De Soto) added 11.
Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) dished out 55 assists with 11 digs as
Samantha Juarez (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) led the match with a career-high 32 digs.
Down two sets to one, NIU (1-4, 1-4 MAC) battled out of an early 5-0 hole in set four to tie it at nine with a 4-0 run highlighted by a Wallace ace. The Huskies then took a 12-11 lead behind kills from Bell, Kovanda, and Jablonski. The two teams then traded points all the way up to 24-24, with 14 ties in the set. NIU broke the tie thanks to a Chippewas service error and took the set 26-24 on a block by Wallace and Balensiefer. Wallace had five kills in the fourth set to go with an ace and the set-clinching block.
"We just needed to settle down and execute," said head coach
Ray Gooden about rallying back to force a fifth set Thursday night. "We got a run of good offense out of
Kennedy Wallace that helped us battle back and force the fifth set."
The Huskies took a 3-2 lead early in the fifth on kills from Kovanda and Wallace. Central Michigan then ran off three straight points to take a 5-3 lead. NIU used a 4-1 run sparked by a Wallace kill to take an 8-7 advantage. The Chippewas then won six of the next eight points with a Kamryn Olson ace giving Central Michigan a 13-10 lead. NIU got to 13-11 but the Chippewas took advantage of an NIU error and an Anna Erickson kill to win the set 15-11 and the match 3-2.
NIU got off to a fast start, winning four of the first five points in the opening set behind a Jablonski kill and a
Kennedy Shelley (Burlington, Colo./Lewis-Palmer) ace. After Central Michigan tied the set at five, the Huskies went on a 4-1 run highlighted by a block by Bell and Wallace to take a 9-6 lead. The Chippewas came back to tie the set at nine and the two teams traded points all the way up to 19-19. The Huskies went on a 4-0 run, bookended by Kovanda kills, to take a 23-19 lead. NIU took the set 25-22 on Jablonski's fifth kill of the set.
Central Michigan's (2-3, 2-3 MAC offense came alive in the second set. The Chippewas hit .372 with 19 kills while NIU hit .350 in the set. Central Michigan built a 7-4 lead on three straight kills from Lisbeth Rosario-Martinez, Savannah Thompson and Megan Sivertsen. The Huskies closed the gap to one at 13-12 but back-to-back Anna Erickson kills put Central Michigan's lead to 15-12. The Chippewas led by as much as four and took the set 25-21 to tie the match at a set apiece. Central Michigan broke an 11-11 tie in the third with a 5-2 run to take a 17-13 lead on a Kamryn Olson ace. The lead grew to seven at 22-15 on a Thompson kill with the Chippewas winning the set 25-19 to go up 2-1 in the match.
"We need to find a way to make our level of consistency a little bit higher," Gooden said. "We ebb and flow. There are moments for us to be able to not only stay close with somebody, but also to get ahead at different times and that's the part we're trying to learn and get better at."
NIU hit .171 in the match as Central Michigan hit .228. The Chippewas held a 10.0-9.0 edge in blocks as the Huskies held a 101-97 advantage in digs. Erickson led all players with 25 kills.
The Huskies and Chippewas play their second match of their series Friday at 1 p.m.
—NIU—
