Sports
Monday, November 9, 2015
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Carlsen era opens with 32-point win Joren Apiquian Staff writer
DeKalb | Women’s basketball (0-0, 0-0 MAC) defeated St. Francis 86-54 in a home exhibition game on Saturday, giving the team its biggest win since the 2012-13 season. Head coach Lisa Carlsen came into the season with a chance to improve the program and got off to a quick start with the 32-point win. The Huskies hadn’t beaten a team by more than 30 points since they beat Norfolk State 69-38 in 2012. NIU led by just seven points at halftime. The team shot 48 percent in the first two quarters and dominated St. Francis in the second half , allowing just 18 second half points. St. Francis scored 12 points in the third period and six in the final quarter. The Huskies shot 53 percent in the second half and 50 percent for the game. They went 7-13 behind the arc, bringing their game total to 53 percent. Carlsen said she is proud of her team’s determination, never-quit
attitude and its iron will to succeed. “I think it is important to establish what we’re trying to do, who we are trying to be and feel good about that,” Carlsen said. “I think we accomplished that today.” Sophomore forward Kelly Smith scored 22 points and 14 rebounds in the winning effort, establishing herself as one of the Huskies’ top leaders going forward. “We all came out there being very confident,” Smith said. “My teammates got me the ball down low and I just happened to make some good shots today.” Freshman guard/forward Courtney Woods also scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds in just 24 minutes of her collegiate debut. “We’ve been conditioning so much lately,” Woods said. “And by the fourth quarter, the other team is not doing as hot, and we still have gas in the tank.” Freshman guard MiKayla Voigt also made her collegiate debut on Saturday, scoring 14 points and grabbing six rebounds. She went 3-4 behind the three-point line, and picked up
Atlee Hargis | Northern Star
Freshman guard MiKayla Voigt drives to the hoop in Saturday’s game against St. Francis. Voigt scored 14 points and picked up six rebounds in her first career game, hitting three 3s and snagging two steals.
a block and two steals in the process. belt,” Voigt said. “We’re feeling all The Huskies will move on for “It’s awesome as a locker room of our hard work in practice pay- a matchup against SIUE at 5 p.m. to finally get that win under our ing off.” on Friday in Edwardsville.
Volleyball bumps win streak up to 5 games Game info
Danielle Brown Staff writer
DeKalb | Volleyball (16-10, 12-2 MAC) took on Toledo and Ball State over the weekend and defeated both teams 3-0, pushing its win streak to five games.
Toledo The Huskies led the first set 15-8 early on. NIU’s defense had really progressed. Toledo struggled to score for most of the set and couldn’t hold off a second run. The Huskies went on to win 25-11. Toledo struggled again in the second set and didn’t put up much of an offensive effort. The team never held a lead, allowing a 25-15 NIU win. The third set was the closest of the three as the Rockets were able to make attempts at a comeback, but eventually fell 25-18. “I thought handling the first ball that was hit at us was big for us, and we did good job of serving tonight,” said head coach Ray Gooden, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “That really set up our offense for the pace that we like to run. It was good to get that kind of play from all of our areas. If we don’t handle the ball the way we
Who: Western Michigan When: 7 p.m. Thursday Where: Victor E. Court
Mateusz Kruk | Northern Star
The Huskies celebrate after a win Saturday against Ball State. They’ve now won five games in a row and 12 of their last 14, giving them first place in the MAC West.
did tonight, it’s not as easy to hit the way we did so credit to our defense to allow us to do some positive things. Pookie [Alexis Gonzalez] did a great job tonight of placing the ball with the team going up in
the right spots to attack the ball and early 16-10 lead Ball State was never able to come back from. NIU minimize Toledo’s blocking.” went on a run to end the set, taking the 25-14 win. Ball State The second set was much closThe Huskies started the game with lots of energy and held an er than the first one. Ball State
fought for a chance to tie the match but couldn’t close the deal, and NIU turned it into another set win 25-20. The Huskies came into the third set with a chance to sweep their second match of the weekend. They led 17-8 after a close start and pulled away toward the end, winning 25-12. “Ball State is a great program and a good team,” Gooden said, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “It was nice for us to defend our home court and play some really positive volleyball. I thought we did a great job of slowing them down because they have a potent offense. And for us to continue to hit and play at a high level is a positive thing.” NIU will move on to play Western Michigan at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Victor E. Court. There are two games remaining in the regular season.
Season over for men’s soccer after late-game loss Krystal Ward Staff writer
DeKalb | Men’s soccer (7-7-1, 1-3-1 MAC) fell to West Virginia (7-11-0, 2-3-0 MAC) 3-2 in a close comeback on Friday night. Senior defender Taylor Cole scored two goals in the last five minutes for the Huskies. The two teams were even for much of the first half despite a header goal
by forward Joey Piatczyc for the Mountaineers. WVU held possession throughout most of the game. NIU had a couple of scoring opportunities early in the second period on shots by sophomore defender/ midfielder Jerome Roche and sophomore midfielder Giovanni Garcia, but Roche’s shot was blocked and Garcia’s went high. A goal by junior forward Felix Angerer put the
Mountaineers up 2-0 with under 15 minutes left. Cole struck a ball in goal to pull the Huskies within one with fewer than five minutes remaining, and struck again to tie the game at 2-2 with fewer than two minutes to go. WVU answered about 30 seconds later when midfielder Jack Elliott headed the ball past diving goalkeeper Andrew Glaeser on a
free kick, giving them the 3-2 win. The loss ended the season for the Huskies and gave WVU a MAC Tournament berth. “First, I would like to congratulate West Virginia,” said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi, according to an NIU Athletics news release. “They got the result and on the whole of the 90 minutes, they were very good. That being said, I thought our guys were
good on the night also. The commitment that was displayed from our team to get those two goals back in the last five minutes of the game was heroic; that’s the only word I can come up with. “Then to have the game decided in such a controversial manner, I’m devastated for our guys who poured everything into the season and into this evening, especially our four seniors.