By By Nathan Vaughan, News Staff

For the second year in a row, the volleyball team won its opening two games, this year winning three straight to start the season.
The squad opened with the Madison Bingaman Memorial Tournament hosted by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Aug. 29. Bingaman was recruited by NU and was to enroll at UMBC but died two days after an Aug. 8 car crash in 2007.
NU opened up against Long Island University and quickly dispatched LIU in three sets 3-0, winning by at least nine in each game. LIU was held to a .021 hitting percentage for the match with 26 errors. The Huskies were led by junior setter and opposite hitter Britney Brown with nine kills and 17 sets. Freshman middle Nicole Bishop got eight blocks.
The team next played host UMBC later that night. This match went to five sets with NU winning 3-2. In the game both Brown and senior co-captain setter and opposite hitter Jessica Tkachuk registered triple-doubles, Brown’s third and Tkachuk’s first. Bishop tallied 11 blocks, four of them solo blocks. Both Tkachuk and Brown were named to the All-Tournament team. Brown was the tournament MVP.
Northeastern then opened up at home against Rhode Island Sept. 1. The Huskies won the first two sets, lost the third, but rebounded to defeat the Rams with a 12 point win in the fourth set, taking the match 3-1. Brown recorded a match-high 13 kills and added 20 sets. Freshman outside Stephanie Starnes got a double-double with a career high 12 kills and 10 digs.
‘Everybody is trying their hardest to contribute what they can for the team,’ said junior middle Jillian Robinson. ‘I don’t think we necessarily need that one go-to hitter but everybody is trying their hardest to produce what they can for the team. That way if one person goes down we still have people to back us up and keep our team well-rounded.’
The Huskies then made the trip out west for the Long Beach State/UC Irvine invitational tournament this past weekend. The team opened against Montana but couldn’t build momentum in California. Brown got another triple-double, but it wasn’t enough as the Huskies fell in three straight sets, losing 3-0. They lost by only three points in the first set and six in the third. NU only led twice in the match.
With a strong first set the Huskies took host UCI to extra points but ultimately fell. They were unable to get anything going in the second set, losing by 15. In the third set NU led 20-16 but couldn’t hold on and dropped the set 25-22, and ultimately the match 3-0. Brown finished a set and dig short of yet another triple-double.
In the last leg of the west coast swing, the Huskies met Long Beach State. Long Beach, remembering a match against NU in which the Huskies had a few match points in the fourth set, pushed from the start and never let up. At no point did they put in second string players. They rolled over NU, winning by 13 in the first two sets and 11 in the third set, for a third straight 3-0 loss.
‘Long Beach never took their foot off the gas, never subbed, just kept hammering away,’ Nichols said. ‘In a strange sort of way it’s just a sign of respect, for what our team is capable of if we are firing on all cylinders. It was amazing that we were as competitive as we were with our outside hitters performing the way they did.’
Moving forward, Nichols’ biggest concern is the hitting on the left side of the net. After struggling last weekend he said he is looking into every possibility to fix it, including switching people over to the outside like Brown or Robinson or putting in sophomore outside Lauren Ciszec. Nichols said they also worked tirelessly in practice to address the problem.
The team will continue in the Mass. Challenge this weekend, playing Boston College and host Holy Cross Saturday afternoon in Worcester. Last season the team won the event, defeating’ the Eagles and Crusaders 3-0 in both matches.
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