Call it a midseason slump. Call it untapped potential. But don’t bother telling the Northwestern volleyball team that it needs to pick up its game. The Wildcats already know that.

In NU’s first winless weekend of the season, the Cats dropped a five-game home match to Ohio State Friday and lost 3-1 to Indiana Saturday at Welsh-Ryan Arena. NU entered the weekend third in the Big Ten standings but now has sunk to a sixth-place tie with the Hoosiers.

“There’s not much to analyze,” NU head coach Keylor Chan said. “(Ohio State) just outplayed us.”

For the weekend, the Cats (13-11, 6-6) hit higher than .200 percent in only one game. In fact, NU earned negative hitting percentages in two games with a -.051 in the fifth game against Ohio State and a -.154 in the fourth game against Indiana.

“We were so fired up and then so let down,” middle blocker Leah Delcourt said. “Usually, we play so well in fifth games.”

During what Chan called “not a good night for (NU) hitters,” middle blocker Erika Lange was the bright spot against Ohio State. Lange racked up 24 kills, topping teammates Christie Gardner and Iwona Lodzik, who each had nine kills.

Ohio State’s Stacey Gordon had 19 kills, and three other Buckeyes earned double digits as well. The Buckeyes also had more set assists, block assists and digs than the Cats.

“It came down to the execution,” Chan said. “It wasn’t any system or fancy stuff. They just made the plays.”

Once again, serving presented a problem for NU, which had 10 service aces and 13 service errors.