THIS WEEKEND IN PEACOCK VOLLEYBALL... Upper Iowa is prepping for a tough week of volleyball against some of the nation's best when they host the #6 Vikings of Augustana University on Friday and the #9 Wilcats of Wayne State College on Saturday. Friday's match begins at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on KCRG 9.3, while Saturday's contest will begin at 3 p.m. and appear on KCRG 9.2. Both matches will have live stats and a webcast available if fans can't make it to Dorman Gym.
BEST IN THE BUSINESS... The Northern Sun Conference is the top conference in all of NCAA Division II when it comes to volleyball. There are currently seven NSIC members in the latest AVCA Coaches Top 25 Poll and all seven are in the top thirteen. The Northern Sun teams in the top 25 are #1 Minnesota Duluth, #2 Concordia-St. Paul, #3 Southwest Minnesota State, #6 Augustana, #7 Winona State, #9 Wayne State and #13 Northern State. The seven nationally-ranked NSIC schools are a combined 106-17 this season and 50-13 in NSIC matches. Upper Iowa has 9 of their 20 conference tilts scheduled against these seven ranked opponents including three battles in the next five days with Augustana, Wayne State and Winona State (on the road on Tuesday).
LAST WEEK FOR THE PEACOCKS… Upper Iowa played without last week's NSIC Offensive Player of the Week Haley Poula and dropped a pair of NSIC matches on the road at #4 Southwest Minnesota State 3-0 and Sioux Falls 3-1 to fall to 9-9 on the season and 3-6 in the conference. The Peacocks offense struggled on the road hitting only .078 for the weekend with 58 kills in their 7 sets. The Mustangs and Cougars combined to hit .381 against UIU. Chelsea Berry led the offense with 16 kills, while Haley Weepie scored 12 kills and Alisha VanderWoude came up with 10. Malissa LeClaire and Carlee Ketchum paced the attack with 29 and 26 assists, respectively. Ashley Larson and Ketchum led the back line defense with 16 and 14 digs.
SCOUTING THE #6 VIKINGS… Augustana went 3-1 last week with a trio of 3-0 sweeps over Black Hills State, South Dakota Mines and Minnesota State. The lone loss came to #2 Concordia-St. Paul in a five-set match. Augustana is having their best season since 2000 when they went to the national title game. The Vikings have swept 6 of their last 7 opponents. Anna Sykora set a career-high in assists for the third time this season with 55 against CSP; she had 166 assists in the four matches for an assists per set average of 11.8. She also had 10 kills, 29 digs and 7 blocks. Hanna Justesen had a great week leading the team with 39 kills and having a hitting percentage of .311. Justesen also had 28 digs and a block. Bailey Koch posted a team-high 13 blocks and had 16 digs.
SCOUTING THE #9 WILDCATS… Wayne State posted a 2-1 mark last week with a non-conference sweep of Chadron State and a five-set victory over Minnesota State before falling to #2 Concordia-St. Paul in straight sets. Senior outside hitter Michaela Mestl averaged 3.36 kills and 4.18 digs and had two double-doubles in three matches. Junior Erin Gross recorded a career-high 13 kills in 3-2 win over Minnesota State. Senior Alyssa Frauendorfer averaged 2.91 kills per set and moved into 12th place on all-time kills list at WSC with 1,243.
