By Jewel Della Valle

This year’s volleyball team may be young, but the Huskies are seeing contributions from veterans and freshmen alike. Northeastern lost two of three matches in last weekend’s Middle Tennessee Blue Raider Bash, but continues to see encouragement in the progress of the young group.

Freshman middle hitter Caitlin Tittl earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team, notching 22 kills and 14 blocks during the weekend, while freshman setter Britney Brown led the Huskies with 72 assists. As for the veterans, captain middle hitter Kira Batura notched her first two double-doubles of the season Saturday and junior outside hitter Lauren DeTurk fell one kill shy of the Husky lead in kills with 32.

The Huskies took on undefeated, No. 25 Middle Tennessee Friday and fell to a quick 0-3 defeat (14-30, 23-30, 13-30). Northeastern hit for a .089 attack percentage and managed just four blocks to Middle Tennessee’s .425 hitting percentage and 13.5 blocks.

Tittl led the Huskies with seven digs, while sophomore setter Jessica Tkachuk had 13 assists and sophomore libero Leah Neubeck tied with Batura for six digs. Despite the harsh loss, DeTurk said the team learned from the experience.

“We learned how to adjust to their play,” DeTurk said. “We needed to adjust earlier in the matches so we can pick up on things faster and not just stick with the same things the whole time, to switch up the momentum.”

The Huskies came out strong against Belmont Saturday, taking the first two games, 30-24 and 30-19. But they let their guard down in game three, which Belmont took 20-30, and let the Bruins come back from an 0-2 deficit to win games four (25-30) and five (7-15).

“It’s just a lack of experience playing together and so we also learned from that match a lot,” DeTurk said. “[We learned] not to lay back on teams. That’s going to be a big thing for conference because