Dekalb, IL- It has been 5 years since the Western Illinois Volleyball team has won a regular season opening game. That streak came to an end tonight as the Leathernecks took down the Northern Illinois Huskies in 4 sets by scores of 25-20, 20-25, 25-18, 25-23. 

Keyana Cruse and Elizabeth Ziegler had huge nights offensively as Ziegler would end up with 16 kills. Cruse finished with 23 kills, which was a game high and Maggie Craker also had a game high in assists with 38. Defensively, WIU had 7 blocks and Karli Wenzel led the team in digs with 23. 

The first set was close early on as both teams would trade the first 6 points of the game making it 3-3. The Huskies would then score the next 2 points to make it 5-3, which was the largest lead of the set for NIU. The two teams would continue to go back and forth until WIU went on a 5-1 run highlighted by 2 Keyana Cruse kills to put the Leathernecks up 16-10, which was the turning point of the set. NIU got as close as 18-16 after the run, but the Leatherneck defense would stand strong as Grace Kremer had a big block to end an NIU run, leading to a 25-20 set one win for Western. 

The second set was also back and forth but a 7-1 run in the middle of the set gave the Huskies a 13-8 lead, causing the Leathernecks to play from behind the rest of the set. WIU wouldn't go away quietly as Elizabeth Ziegler would get a kill followed by a block to cut the NIU lead to 1. The Huskies would follow that with a 3-0 run to force a WIU timeout and would go on to win the second set 25-20. 

To open the third set, NIU would take an early 8-4 lead. Like the previous two sets, WIU would not go down without a fight. A Brittany Wulf ace would spark a 10-2 Leatherneck run and WIU wouldn't look back as they would go on to win the set 25-18. In the fourth set, NIU would again start off with an early lead of 6-3, but the leatherneck toughness would once again show. With each team going on several mini runs for a majority of the fourth and final set, Elizabeth Ziegler would give WIU some breathing room having 3 straight kills giving them a 18-15 lead. The final kill of the game also came from Ziegler to give the Leathernecks the 3-1 victory, winning the fourth set 25-23. 

WIU is back in action tomorrow night as they will take on the Milwaukee Panthers at 7 PM in Dekalb for their final game of the Huskie Invitational.