Fighting for a title
Volleyball travels to Bowling Green for MAC tournament
By Sean Ostruszka
Staff Reporter
Last season, the NIU volleyball team couldn’t get past the quarterfinal
round in the MAC tournament.
The Huskies hope to hang around a bit longer in this year’s
quarterfinal match against No. 2-seed Ball State at 10 a.m. today
at tournament host Bowling Green.
Coming off a three-game sweep of No. 10-seed Toledo, No. 7 NIU (14-18
overall, 8-8 MAC) will look to keep its five-match winning streak
alive against the Cardinals.
If NIU advances, it will face the winner of the Marshall against
Bowling Green game in the semifinals Saturday. The championship game
is at noon on Sunday.
When the two teams face off, BSU (19-9, 12-4) will be without leading
attacker Sarah Obras, who is out with a knee injury. Obras was averaging
4.85 kills per game and had 27 kills in her two matches against NIU.
Obras and NIU’s Tera Lobdell were named to this year’s
six-person All-MAC first team. Huskies sophomore Kate McCullagh was
an All-MAC honorable mention selection.
“Even without Obras, that team is still really, really good,”
NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “They are the No. 2 seed for a reason.”
The home team has won each of the NIU-BSU matches this season. With
today’s match at a neutral site, Gooden hopes his team can use
that as an advantage.
“Every team is on the road now,” Gooden said. “And
even though we’ve been at home the past weeks, it’s our
energy here that we can take with us and get us to that next level
in the tourney.
“If you have road issues now, then you shouldn’t be in
the tournament. Bowling Green is where the best teams want to be.
That’s where we want to be,” he said.
