Western Courier

Issue date: 8/27/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Adam Sacasa Junior left side Mo Houston was named to the All-Tournament team at the Northern Illinois Invitational over the weekend.

The Western Illinois volleyball team and the city of DeKalb had something in common this weekend - they were both overrun.

Torrential rain and potential flooding in DeKalb forced the start of the season-opening Northern Illinois Invitational to be pushed back from Friday to Saturday, with Western's opening contest with the Huskies to be made up on Sunday.

Instead of starting the tournament with the one team that has a similar talent level as the Westerwinds, it instead was pitted against Western Kentucky, a Top 50 team in the collegiate ranks.

The results speak for themselves as the 'Winds lost 3-0 (30-19, 30-21, 30-19).

"It was your stereotypical opening tournament," said coach Kym McKay. "We figured out what we need to work on, and that will give us the focus we need to continue to improve."

The Westerwinds did not have much time to regroup, as it was scheduled to play Indiana directly after the first match.

"The Western Kentucky match was a tough way to begin," McKay said. "I just wanted to make sure that we steadily improved as the tournament progressed, and I think we did that in our match against Indiana."

Despite being the largest opponent in terms of team size, Western out-blocked Indiana 11-7. Unfortunately, the offense struggled, hitting only .181 for the match en route to a 3-1 loss (30-15, 29-31, 35-33, 30-23).

"I was impressed with the way we blocked against a Big Ten team," McKay said. "It tells me that we are going to continue to be one of the best blocking teams in The Summit League. I just wish we could've played a little better otherwise."

The rescheduled Northern Illinois match saw more improvement for the Westerwinds, but again it did not translate into better numbers on the scoreboard. With the loss, Western fell to 0-3 on the young season.

"Each team came in with a good game plan, but we struggled at all the wrong times," McKay said. "We had opportunities to take leads, but we would make errors at those times. It's something that we really need to improve on.

"I was disappointed with our lack of court leadership for the tournament as a whole," she added. "I'm starting two freshmen, and I need my returnees to step up to the challenge. I didn't see enough of that this weekend, and it's something we have to address before conference rolls around."

Individually, junior left side Mo Houston played some of the best volleyball of her career during the tournament, earning the coaches' votes to the All-Tournament team.

"(Houston) did some great things all weekend long." McKay said. "She was the most aggressive I've ever seen in her three years here. She continued her good play from the spring."

The Westerwinds will have a chance to rebound from its tough opening weekend when it travels to play former Mid-Con opponent Chicago State on Tuesday night.

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