Sports
Monday, November 3, 2014
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Volleyball clinches playoff berth Rhema Rhea Staff Writer H @NSSportsRhea
Volleyball put its lone conference loss behind it this weekend, earning a berth in the MAC Tournament The Huskies (18-8, 11-1 MAC) improved to 7-0 against MAC West opponents after beating the Ball State Cardinals (14-11, 8-4 MAC) Friday in Muncie, Ind. They continued the winning when they took down the Toledo Rockets (1-24, 0-12 MAC) Saturday in Toledo, Ohio. The Huskies got back to the same winning formula that has helped them be successful all season: a road-warrior mentality, tough defense and serving well. “I think against Ball State we started off a little slow and then we were able to use our strengths to help us out,” said head coach Ray Gooden. “At Toledo, I thought we had a good start and just tried to maintain it all the way through, but all and all, to get two wins on the road and to have three wins out of four matches here has been real positive for our group.” Ball State NIU improved to 2-0 against Ball State this season after going 0-2 against the Cardinals last year. After losing in the first set, NIU ran off three sets in a row to take the match from Ball State, 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-20). The Huskies’ defense was the story of the match, registering 12 blocks and 68 digs. “We were really scrappy on defense and not letting balls drop, and our block was setting up for the defense to dig around us,” said Lauren Zielinski, redshirt sophomore middle blocker. The Cardinals raced to a 7-2 advantage behind three aces in the first set, and they had runs
Hildreth, Heuer crush records Rhema Rhea Staff Writer H @NSSportsRhea
Suresh Vakati | Northern Star File Photo
Lauren Zielinski (17), redshirt sophomore middle blocker, spikes the ball Sept. 27 at Victor E. Court against Ball State. The Huskies clinched a spot in the MAC Tournament Friday when they beat Ball State for the second time this season.
of 4-1 and 3-0 later on in the set to stretch their advantage to 2215. The Huskies closed the gap with their own 6-3 run, but they couldn’t pull it out, losing 25-21. After totaling just 11 kills in the first set, the Huskies’ offense collected 16 kills and a .273 attack percentage en route to a 25-19 second-set win. The third set was a back-andforth affair with 14 ties and nine lead changes, but the Huskies held on for the win and sealed the victory with a fourth-set win. The NIU defense held Hayley Benson, 2013 First Team All-MAC honoree, to 11 kills and a .192 hitting percentage and also forced
her to commit six errors. “That was one of our keys to success against those guys, and I thought our team did a really good job of identifying her and not making her a big factor because she’s one of the better players [in] our league,” Gooden said. Toledo The Huskies registered 66 kills and a .318 attack percentage against the Rockets, resulting in a 3-1 victory (25-21, 25-21, 22-25, 25-15). The win put the Huskies at 11-6 in road matches this season. The Huskies won three of the four sets behind a hot hitting percentage,
averaging .389 in their set wins. “We just kind of focus[ed] on our side because we know once we focus on our side and we play how we want to play that’s when we do great things,” said junior setter Alexis “Pookie” Gonzalez. The Huskies put pressure on the Rockets with their aces, registering five in the four-set contest. They also did a good job stopping the spike attempts from Toledo, picking up 57 digs, including three Huskies who hit double figures: sophomore defensive specialist Paige Dacanay (12), freshman libero Anna Brereton (12) and senior outside hitter Mackenzie Roddy (10).
Men’s soccer’s tourney hopes dashed Frank Gogola Sports Editor H @FrankGogola
DeKalb | Missed opportunities and a late Akron goal on a penalty kick put to bed men’s soccer’s chances of making the MAC Tournament with one regular season game to go. The Huskies (3-8-5, 0-3-1 MAC) lost to the Akron Zips (10-5-1, 3-10 MAC), 2-1, Saturday at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex. The Huskies fired off five shots on goal in the second half after they registered only one in the first half, but the one goal they managed wasn’t enough. “I thought it was a pretty good 90-minute performance,” said head coach Eric Luzzi. “What Akron does, there’s not many teams in the country that play like that. They have a really big shape, they’re all competent on the ball [and] they try and spread out you. “… I think after the first maybe 15, 20 minutes I thought our guys performed amazingly well. … They gave an absolute warrior’s effort, every single guy that played.” The Zips took a 2-1 lead on a penalty kick goal by sophomore Adam Najem in the 83rd minute, sneaking the shot past redshirt junior goalkeeper Andrew Glaeser. The penalty kick was awarded after Akron’s
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Nick Smith | Northern Star
Senior defender Dusty Paige (19) looks to pass Saturday in the game against Akron at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex. The loss eliminated the Huskies from any chance of playing in the MAC Tournament.
Stuart Holthusen went down in the box, prompting a call from the referee. “I’m sure there was contact there,” Luzzi said. “I thought his last touch was a heavy touch that
he was never going to catch up to, and sometimes that factors into whether a call like that is made. I mean … 1-1 in a crucial game like that [with] 7:00 left, you’ll probably have six refs that won’t call it
and four that will out of 10.” Najem’s goal came 4:09 after sophomore defender Richard Hall netted the equalizer for the Huskies in the 78th minute. Hall’s corner kick, his second in 32 seconds, took a direct line to the goal, went off goalkeeper Jake Fenlason’s hands and found the back of the net. “I thought the game was very, very even in the second half,” Luzzi said. “I thought we had a lot of the momentum. Of course, [the Zips] still had more of the ball, that’s what they do … but I thought we had a lot of the momentum. We had half a dozen decent chances in the second half, and there’s not many teams that create chances like that against an Akron team.” Akron’s Sean Sepe opened the scoring with a shot from 12 yards out that was deflected and found the back of the net in the 18th minute. Sepe’s goal came after the initial ball of a free kick was headed out from right in front of the net. “The fact that they scored on a deflected free kick and a penalty kick I think says volumes for the performance that our guys put in today,” Luzzi said. “I’m crushed for them with the result, but I couldn’t be prouder of them in terms of the performance.”
Cross country’s top two runners made program history Saturday at the MAC Championships in Mount Pleasant, Mich. Freshman Kelsey Hildreth and senior Meghan Heuer became the first All-MAC performers in program history. But, the Huskies didn’t get enough help from their supporting cast, finishing in ninth place (212 points) out of 12 teams. Hildreth notched a fifth-place finish out of 84 runners, timing in at 20:33 to make All-MAC First Team. Heuer ran a 21:09 and took 11th place, which placed her on the All-MAC Second Team. “I was happy with how I did,” Hildreth said. “My goal was top five going into it, so I was happy.” Both runners ran personal records during the 6K race, smashing their previous bests by 22 seconds. “Meghan did really well,” Hildreth said. “Like, I could hear everyone cheering for her right behind me the whole race, so I was happy that she was so close to me during the race.” H e u e r ’ s Meghan Heuer Senior finish was 26 spots better than her 37thplace finish at the 2013 MAC Championships. “I thought it was pretty awesome for us,” Heuer said. “Kind of unbelievable that Kelsey just comes in here and runs in the top five. … That’s the first time I’ve been up [with the top finishers] in [the] MAC. I know last year I was a lot [further] behind. It’s exciting.” Despite the high finishes, NIU failed to meet its team goal of finishing in the top half of the MAC. “We just fell short there,” said head coach Greg Hipp. “That group certainly knows that they’re capable of more, and we flat out just didn’t get it done in those [three to five] spots. … Cross country is team-oriented, and one superstar can’t carry a team when five people have to score, so we’ve got to see the whole group adapt a different mentality when it comes to cross country.” Toledo won the event title, having five runners finish in the top 15, giving the Rockets their fourth title in five years. Eastern Michigan’s Victoria Voronko was the individual champion, finishing just 12 seconds better than Hildreth at 20:21.
Results Kelsey Hildreth Meghan Heuer Ali Olson Taylor Perkins Lorena Martin
Fifth 11th 57th 68th 71st