Upper Iowa earned their first Northern Sun Conference win of the year with a sweep of the University of Mary Marauders Friday night in Fayette.  The Peacocks used an aggressive attack and solid defense to dominate the match.  With the win, UIU improved to 6-4 overall and 1-1 in the NSIC, while U-Mary fell to 3-7 overall and 0-2 in conference action.

Thanks to 37 kills and a hitting percentage of .308, the Peacocks were able to push through their guests.  Jennifer Mundt led the team with 12 kills while hitting .391, but five other players had at least 5 kills.  UIU's middles, Alisha VanderWoude and Haylie Franklin, picked up 8 and 6 kills, respectively, while Hailey Brown notched 7, Tyann Caspers knocked down 6 and Kelsey Hinrichs added 5.  Brown and Jenna Hermsen did well to pace the Peacock attack with 20 and 14 assists apiece.

"We played a solid match from the first whistle until the last one tonight," said Head Coach Aaron Nelson.  "We were disciplined with our block and defense and did a nice job taking advantage of our opportunities to score.  It was a great all-around team effort tonight."

UIU's defense forced the Marauders into 22 hitting errors and a .064 hitting percentage for the match.  The back line was led by libero Amanda Weiss, who picked up 16 digs.  Hinrichs added 10 digs, while Mundt was up on 4 blocks and VanderWoude, Franklin and Brown each added 2 denials.

Upper Iowa's offense improved each set as the match continued.  The Peacocks hit .273 in set one with 14 kills and then improved to .303 in the second set and .342 in the final set.  The home team posted 15 kills in the final two sets, but committed just 5 errors in the first and second sets and only 2 in the final frame.

The Peacocks will return to the court quickly to line up against the Minot State University Beavers at 3 p.m. in Dorman on Saturday, Sept. 20, between the men's soccer and football home games.