This Week in Peacock Volleyball… UIU is set for a busy week on the road during fall break. The Peacocks, who are coming off a stretch where they have faced three top-ten teams in the last four matches, have two more nationally-ranked foes in their sites this week. Upper Iowa will take on #6 Winona State University in Winona, Minn. on Tuesday night and then travel north for a Friday match with Minnesota State University Moorhead in Moorhead, Minn. and a Saturday tilt against #13 Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Lucky 13… The Northern Sun Conference is known as the top volleyball conference in all of NCAA Division II and the AVCA Division II Top-25 is a reflection of that. Seven NSIC squads are all inside the top-thirteen of this week's poll. The seven nationally-ranked teams are the #1 University of Minnesota Duluth, #2 Southwest Minnesota State University, #3 Concordia University, St. Paul, #6 Winona State, #8 Augustana University, #9 Wayne State College and #13 Northern State.
Logjam for Tenth Place… Upper Iowa is part of a six-team tie for 10th place in the Northern Sun Conference. The Peacocks are 2-1 against the teams in the logjam with wins over St. Cloud State University and Bemidji State University and a loss at Minnesota State University, Mankato. UIU has not faced MSU Moorhead or the University of Mary to this point in the season.
Last week for the Peacocks… Upper Iowa enters the week on a four-game skid after a pair of losses at home to #6 Augustana and #9 Wayne State. UIU has only claimed one set victory during their current streak, which followed a three-match, nine-set win streak. Three of the last four matches for Upper Iowa have been against AVCA Top-Ten teams. The Peacocks matched their nationally-ranked opponents in digs over the weekend with 109.
Alisha VanderWoude tallied 15 kills while hitting .243 and added a pair of blocks, while
Chelsea Berry and
Kelsey Hinrichs added 12 and 10 kills in the two matches. Hinrichs and
Ashley Larson paced the defense with 23 and 22 digs apiece.
Malissa LeClaire and
Carlee Ketchum passed out 25 and 19 assists, respectively, to set up the attack.
Bethany Lovhaug denied 4 shots at the net for a .8/set average in blocks.
Scouting the #6 Warriors… Winona State comes into their busy week having picked up a pair of wins over AVCA Top-Ten opponents #9 Wayne State (3-1) and #6 Augustana (3-2) to improve to 18-3 overall. The Warrior defense averaged 17.9 digs/set and outhit their opponents .265 to .245. The WSU offense averaged 14.2 kills/set on 13.7 assists/set. Danielle Rampart registerd 35 kills and 23 digs and Taylor Goar added 32 kills and 38 digs. Jamie Cairncross averaged 5.78 digs per set, while McKenna Larsen averaged 11.3 assists per set to go with 14 kills and 3.11 digs per set. Lauren Kudronowicz had 12 blocks on the weekend.
Scouting the Dragons… MSU Moorhead enters the busy week having lost their last two matches at St. Cloud State (3-0) and at #1 Minnesota Duluth (3-0). Over the weekend, libero Monica Vega had 19 digs, outside hitter Carly Masloski led the offense with 17 kills, while setter Makayla Wenzel handed out 48 assists. Freshman Courtney Selbitschka had the biggest weekend for MSUM with 15 kills and two blocks while hitting .317 in 41 attempts.
Scouting the #13 Wolves… Northern State split their two matches over the weekend after a 3-0 loss at #1 Minnesota Duluth and a 3-0 win at St. Cloud State. After the Wolves hit .139 against the top-ranked Bulldogs, the team hit .358 with 47 kills versus St. Cloud State. Kellie Schmit led the team with nine kills against the Bulldogs, while Jenna Reiff hit a team leading .333 in the match. Holly Vancura led the team on night two with 14 kills, while Schmit and Lauren McCafferty hit a team leading .529 and .444. Ashley Rozell notched 77 assists averaging 12.83 per set over the weekend. Rozell has now surpassed 800 assists in her first season with the Wolves.
