Upper Iowa's volleyball team swept the Cougars of the University of Sioux Falls in Dorman Gymnasium on Friday night to secure their 17th win of the season. The victory sets a new program high-mark for wins in a season at UIU. The Peacocks improved to 17-4 overall and 8-4 in the Northern Sun Conference thanks to set wins of 25-17, 25-12 and 25-17. Both the Peacocks and Cougars received votes in the AVCA Top 25 this week and were tied in sixth place in the conference standings prior to the match.  

The Peacocks executed their gameplan perfectly and seemed to be everywhere defensively. While the offense played well with 37 kills and a .280 hitting percentage for the match, the UIU defense was the story of the game.  

Upper Iowa's block was dominant registering 12 team blocks including 5 in the second set. In addition to the block, the backline defense was locked in recording 48 digs and the UIU servers posted 5 aces in the match. When all was said and done, the Peacocks forced the Cougars into 28 attack errors while allowing only 26 kills to their guests.  

Haley Weepie led a balanced attack on offense with 8 kills, while Anna Winter (7 kills), Haley Poula (6 kills) and Malissa LeClaire (5 kills) combined for 18 kills and 0 attack errors. UIU's middles were also involved in the attack with Lauren Wombles (6 kills) and Bethany Lovhaug (5 kills). LeClaire paced the attack with 26 assists.  

At the net, six Peacocks registered a block; Lovhaug led the way with 8 blocks, while Poula, Winters and Wombles each picked up 4 blocks. Weepie got her hands on 13 digs to lead the squad, while libero Ashley Larson dug up 10 balls. Larson now has 981 digs in her UIU career as she nears the 1,000-dig plateau. 

Upper Iowa will host the #2 Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State University in Dorman Gym at 2 p.m. on Saturday.