The Peacock volleyball took the court in Sioux Falls, S.D. on Friday night to open their first full road weekend of the Northern Sun Conference season. For the third time in their first four matches in the NSIC, Upper Iowa lined up against a nationally-ranked opponent in the form of the #22 Vikings of Augustana University.
Augie edged their guests by two points in each of the first two sets (25-23) and then controlled the third set (25-17) to sweep Upper Iowa. With the decision, the Vikings improve to 10-2 overall and 3-1 in the NSIC, while the Peacocks fall to 7-6 overall and 1-3 in the conference.
Upper Iowa limited their errors in the first set and it nearly turned into a win in the opening frame. The Peacocks took and early lead and held the Vikings at a distance for much of the set. Kills by
Alisha VanderWoude and
Lauren Wombles gave the visitors a 23-19 lead, but Augustana called a timeout to regroup. Following the timeout, the home team scored six straight points to rally for the first set win.
In the second set, the Peacocks trailed by as many as five, 16-11, but thanks to a 9-4 run on the service of
Jennifer Mundt and
Malissa LeClaire, UIU took a 20-18 lead. The lead would be short-lived as the Vikings earned points on seven of the final ten serves to hold on for a second 25-23 victory.
After the intermission, the Peacocks and Vikings were locked up as UIU edged out to a 10-9 lead. Unfortunately, eight of the next nine points went to Augustana as the home team pushed out to a 17-11 lead en route to their 25-17 win in set three.
Mundt led the Peacock offense with 14 kills cutting the gap between the all-time kills record at UIU and herself to just 31 kills. Mundt added 10 digs and a block on defense. LeClaire handed out 14 assists, while
Jenna Hermsen had 9. UIU had a balanced group on the back line as LeClaire (12 digs),
Taylor Williams {11 digs) and
Ashley Larson (9 kills) all added to Mundt's defense.
Upper Iowa will return to the court Saturday afternoon in Wayne, Neb. for another NSIC battle against a nationally-ranked foe. The Peacocks will meet the #5 Wildcats of Wayne State College at 3 p.m.
