Upper Iowa earned a five-set win on the road against the Huskies of St. Cloud State University on Friday night. The Peacocks dominated the first set, won a tight second set and then held on for a win in set five after the Huskies rallied with victories in sets three and four. UIU won the match for their third straight victory and seventh in their last nine contests. The Peacocks claimed a season sweep of the Huskies and improved to 14-10 overall and 8-7 in the Northern Sun.
The Peacocks controlled the first set hitting .353 with 13 kills and just one attack error to post a 25-11 win. In the second set, Upper Iowa claimed 17 kills, but 6 errors allowed their hosts to stay close. St. Cloud State led 21-18, but UIU scored seven of the final nine points to come-from-behind and go ahead two sets to none.
The home squad trailed their guests 14-8 midway through the third set when the Huskies rallied for the win after outscoring the Peacocks 17-5. The fourth set belonged to SCSU as the Huskies took a 24-16 lead when Upper Iowa attempted a massive rally with their backs against the wall. UIU scored six straight points, but a Husky kill registered the final point of the set to win 25-22.
The teams exchanged points throughout the fifth set and St. Cloud State claimed a 12-11 lead prior to UIU's final timeout. When the Peacocks came out of the timeout, the team tied the match at 12-12 and didn't look back. Upper Iowa scored the final four points of the set to win 15-12 with three of the final four points coming on kills by
Jennifer Mundt.
Mundt led all the hitters in the match with 27 kills. The senior has now gone for 20+ kills four times this season including a career-high 29 kills against St. Cloud State in the teams' first meeting in Fayette this past September. Junior
Alisha VanderWoude added a career-high 15 kills and freshman
Lauren Wombles chipped in 10. The defense was balanced well between
Taylor Williams (31 digs),
Kelsey Hinrichs (20 digs) and
Jenna Hermsen (18 digs), while VanderWoude added 5 blocks on the night.
Jenna Hermsen and
Malissa LeClaire set up the offense with 29 and 26 assists, respectively.
Upper Iowa will challenge the #9 Bulldogs of the University of Minnesota Duluth on Saturday in Duluth, Minn. at 4 p.m.
