Michigan Tech’s Lindy Oujiri (18) extends to hit a ball during a match this season at the SDC Gym in Houghton. Teammates Grace Novotny (5) and Morgan Radtke (13) look on. (David Archambeau/For the Gazette)

HOUGHTON — With a split last weekend thanks to a loss to Wayne State and a win over Saginaw Valley State, the Michigan Tech Huskies volleyball team remains in striking distance of a home playoff spot in the GLIAC. They will need some help, however.

The Huskies are set this weekend to face Wisconsin-Parkside and Purdue Northwest, the two teams at the bottom of the GLIAC standings, but both are still in contention for the playoffs themselves, so there will be plenty on the line for all three teams this weekend.

Michigan Tech is 17-10 on the season and 9-7 in GLIAC play after the split. They sit in a tie for fifth behind Wayne State, who is 10-6, and are level with Grand Valley State.

The reason they sit behind the Warriors in the standings is their own fault. After defeating the Northern Michigan Wildcats, 3-0, in a very strong, passionate match, the Huskies struggled to get anything going offensively in Detroit. They did salvage the week with the win against the Cardinals.

“I think all three matches, we saw different versions of the team this year,” said coach Matt Jennings. “Tuesday was a very clean, crisp, well-played, passionate, high energy game start to finish. Friday was flat. Didn’t get blown out, but really didn’t feel like we were ever really in it. Then Saginaw was all kinds of interesting in the way we pulled it off.”

Saturday, the Huskies trailed 20-15 in the first set against the Cardinals before they clawed back to win, 26-24. They then dropped two straight sets before bouncing back with a win in the fourth set, forcing a tiebreaker, which they also won.

“With a young team, or forming some parts of a team, you look for different signs or things that happen out there as a coach,” Jennings said. “Like Northern, you look for that, and you see it, very obvious.

“But the Saginaw game, we’re down 21-14 or 21-15 in the first set, and squeak back and win, 26-24. We dropped the next two sets. So, you steal the first, get beat the second two and then just kind of play marginally better to the fourth, okay, pull that off. We kind of knew, going into like the end of the fourth, going into fifth, if we get to five, we’re going to win. By the time we got to five, our confidence was super high, which is a new thing for us.”

A big reason for the Huskies’ ability to bounce back and take the match on Saturday was the play of junior outside hitter Lindy Oujiri. Oujiri racked up 12 kills coming in off the bench, which tied her best offensive output of the season, which she last achieved on Sept. 24 against the Rangers.

Oujiri hit .320 for the match, her highest hitting percentage since Aug. 27 in a win over the Academy of Art.

“What a great moment for her and our team,” said Jennings. “Her and Morgan (Radtke) both came in off the bench, both hadn’t played in a number of matches, particularly Lindy.

“She did what, not only we needed her to do it in that moment to help us win, but she just was a great teammate about it. McKenna (Wesol) wasn’t playing poorly, per se, we were just looking for a different look. Again Makena and Meg (Raabe) as freshmen had been taking a ton of big tough reps and Lindy was fresh. She wanted to go in, and she was aggressive, assertive, and in just two and a half sets had 12 kills, hit over .300.”

Radtke stepped in and got six kills and hit .455, something that the team needed in that moment as well.

Wesol and Raabe had been taking most of the reps this season at outside hitter, and both had strong numbers in terms of kills Saturday, at 10 and 11 kills, respectively, but Oujiri’s confident swings changed the nature of the match.

“They blocked us 21 times in five sets,” Jennings said. “Lindy comes in, who has, at times, been susceptible to getting blocked, fearless in her swings and figures out a way to navigate their block. At that moment, we were having a hard time doing otherwise. So, she came in and didn’t overthink it, went out, played aggressive, and really worked to earn her points.

“The few errors that she made were good ones. They were the shots that she missed had intent. She was just locked in. I think it was a really great moment for her, and hope she…gained some confidence from that.”

Playoff positioning

The Huskies host the Rangers on Friday at 6 p.m. in the SDC Gym before facing Purdue Northwest at 3 p.m. Saturday.

“It’s important to remember that we beat Parkside the first time after being down 0-2, come back and win in five, in a moment where it was kind of a turning point for our season,” said Jennings. “So, we understand that about Parkside. We also know that Parkside, Purdue, Lake State, and Saginaw are all fighting for seventh and eighth right now, so they have a lot to play for. There’s nothing more dangerous than a team like that.

Senior night

On Saturday, the Huskies will say goodbye to seven seniors or fifth-year players, as they play their final home regular season match. Jennings is very proud of all seven, Carissa Beyer, Lina Espejo-Ramirez, Janie Grindland, Jillian Kuizenga, Grace Novotny, Maggie Petersen, and Radtke.

“All of them are going to go on and do great things, either graduate school, Ph.D.’s, or employed gainfully, with great grades and real impact,” Jennings said. “In a way this is kind of the last round of the old guard. I mean, I think of some of the seniors, and some of the teams that they were part of early on, of the improvement they’ve made.

“They’re easy to overlook going into the year, thinking about the seniors we lost last year, but seven that we’re going to say goodbye to after this season that had a lot of success, helped define and reinforce the culture we’ve built here. Just impressive, very quality people. Very grateful for what they’ve done. I’m gonna miss them quite a bit.”