The Peacock volleyball team improved to 4-1 in Dorman Gym this season with a four-set victory over St. Cloud State University on Friday night. Upper Iowa has now won six of their last seven matches against the Huskies going back to the 2011 season. After a slim victory in set one, the Peacocks took set two and headed to the locker room in control. SCSU rallied with a three-point win in set three, but Upper Iowa was unstoppable in the fourth set hitting .459 while holding their guests to a .105 hitting percentage. With the win, UIU improves to 8-7 on the year and 3-4 in the NSIC, while SCSU falls to 7-8 and 1-6 in the conference.
Upper Iowa and St. Cloud State went back and forth in set one. The teams each took command of portions with long runs, but each time the squad on the short end of the score found a way to rally. The Huskies scored five straight in the set to take a 15-10 lead, but the Peacocks came back scoring 11 of the next 14 points to take a 21-18 lead. The home team had match point at 24-21, but four straight points by the visitors put UIU in trouble. The teams battled back and forth and UIU finally prevailed with the 30-28 win thanks to a kill by
Jennifer Mundt and a Husky error.
In the second set, the Peacocks were able to maintain a two to three point margin throughout the frame and then scored three straight points to close out the match on a kill from
Haylie Franklin.
In the first two sets the teams combined for 56 kills with 30 errors, but the offenses took over in set three. St. Cloud State hit .324 with 17 kills and 5 errors, while Upper Iowa hit .314 with 16 kills and 5 errors. The Huskies took a 16-11 lead and only twice did a team score on their own serve for the remainder of the match as SCSU held on for the 25-22 win to pull with in one set.
UIU took an early 9-5 lead in the fourth set, but the team took control of the set midway through thanks to a 15-4 run that put UIU at the door step for a win, 24-11.
Kelsey Hinrichs earned the final kill of the night to give the Peacocks a 3-1 victory.
"Our passing led the way for us tonight," said Head Coach Aaron Nelson. "The kids in the back did a great job all night handling the attack and giving [Hailey] Brown and [Jenna] Hermsen a lot of options. We got great balance out of our setters as well. Jenny [Mundt] was really solid tonight; great attack and she really limited her errors. Haylie Franklin also did a great job hitting .421 tonight. Overall, it was a great team effort and one of our best performances of the season."
Mundt led the offense with 27 kills and a .442 hitting percentage, while Franklin added 8 kills and a .421 percentage. As a team, the Peacocks hit .266 with 60 kills and just 18 errors. On the back line,
Amanda Weiss had 21 digs, while Hinrichs had 17 and
Hailey Brown added 14. Brown added 26 assists, while
Jenna Hermsen served up 25.
Alisha VanderWoude picked up 6 blocks at the net for the home team.
The Peacocks will be at home again tomorrow against the #2 Bulldogs of the University of Minnesota Duluth at 3 p.m.
OF NOTE: The Peacocks are now 3-0 in the regular season against St. Cloud State University across all three fall championship sports that the teams share in the Northern Sun Conference. Football won 37-31 last Saturday, women's soccer won 3-0 last Sunday and volleyball won 3-1 Friday in Fayette.
