BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The Northern Illinois volleyball team dropped both of its matches on Friday at the Lady Topper Volleyball Invitational on the campus of Western Kentucky as the Huskies (4-6) were beaten 3-0 by Memphis early in the day and 3-0 by the Lady Toppers in the nightcap.
After losing the first set, 25-19, to Memphis in NIU’s morning match, the Huskies fought back hard only to drop the next two sets by a combined four points, forcing overtime in the third.
With the score knotted 20-20 in the second set, NIU fell behind 22-20 after Memphis scored on an attack error by Cassie Yates and a kill by Lauren Thompson, causing NIU to call a timeout. Out of the break, the Huskies fired right back to tie it after Meagan Schoenrock notched a kill, Kristin Hoffman committed a handling error, and Hoffman and Mary Kurisch combined on a block to force Memphis to take a timeout. Just as NIU did, the Tigers came out of the timeout ready to go and scored the final two points of the set,
25-23, with a kill by Katlin Inglish and an attack error by Dani D’Ambrose.
In the third set, the Huskies had a 22-20 lead after a kill by Allison McGlaughlin but Memphis tied the score after a service error by D’Ambrose and a block by Emily Underwood and Christine Bach. The two teams then exchanged points, leaving the score knotted 26-26 before an attack error by Meghan Romo and a kill by Underwood ended the set, 28-26, and gave the Tigers the match.
