The Northeastern women’s volleyball team experienced an unfortunate end-of-the-year collapse last weekend, losing a pair of conference matches to drop out of first place and finish the season with the No. 3 seed in the America East Conference tournament.

The Huskies’ (22-10, 10-4) Nov. 8 loss to Stony Brook put them in a tie with the University of New Hampshire Wildcats for the regular season crown, with a deciding head-to-head match last Friday.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, the Wildcats (21-11, 12-2), took the match 3-1, pushing Northeastern into second place for the first time all season. In front of over 1,000 Wildcat fans, the Huskies lost the first game 30-25, won game two 30-26, but then dropped games three and four, 30-27, and 30-23.

It marked the sixth consecutive match that the home team had emerged victorious, and the second consecutive season the Huskies finished right behind the Wildcats in the America East.

Senior Briana Furch led the team’s offense with 14 kills, and fellow senior Kristin Ursillo dished out 46 assists. New Hampshire’s well-balanced offensive attack was led by senior Alyson Coler, who knocked down 17 kills, while senior Anne Davis and freshman Katie Weidner split the setting duties, finishing with 29 and 32 assists, respectively.

A Stony Brook win and another Husky loss left both teams with 10-4 in-conference records, and gave Stony Brook the second seed due to a tiebreaker.

The 3-2 loss to Maine (14-20, 5-9) was the first time the team had suffered a Black Bear defeat since Nov. 11, 2001. In fact, the Huskies hadn’t lost a single game in the last three matches.

“Nobody in this conference is a pushover,” NU coach Nichols said. “These teams are really rising to beat us and we’re still playing the same way.”

NU heads to New Hampshire for the America East playoffs this week. Semifinals will be held on Friday, where the two winners will face off for the championship the next day.