This Weekend in Peacock Volleyball… The UIU volleyball team is on the road for the final weekend of the regular season. The Peacocks, who are receiving votes and are the defacto No. 26 team in the nation, will challenge No. 7 Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. on Friday at 6 p.m. and Minnesota State University, Moorhead on Saturday at 4 p.m.
 
All-NSIC Performer… The Northern Sun Conference handed out their Volleyball All-Conference Awards today and sophomore Anna Winter is on the All-NSIC Second Team. Winter's honor is the first for Upper Iowa since 2014 and 2015, when Jenny Mundt claimed back-to-back all-conference nods as a junior and senior. The All-NSIC Volleyball team is made up of 33 young ladies; 18 named to the first team and 15 to the second team. Winter leads the Peacock offense with 317 kills, the ninth highest total in the NSIC, and averages 3.23 kills per set, which ranks eleventh in the conference. The sophomore is hitting .258 thanks to only 0.55 errors/set. Winter is fourth in the Northern Sun Conference in total attacks with 1,021. She has also recorded 20 service aces, 128 digs and 48 blocks including 4 solo denials to round out her stat line. The Rochester, Minn. native reached double-digit kills in 18 of Upper Iowa's 27 matches this fall including six times over 15 kills in a match. Her career highs of 21 and 20 came in the team's victories over No. 20 Wayne State College and #18 Washburn University, respectively. Defensively, Winter got her hands on a career-high 11 digs twice this season including a road win at No. 20 Wayne State and a home sweep of Minot State University. Her career-high in blocks (5) came at No. 15 Winona State University in a five-set loss.
 
NSIC Tournament Bound… With their two wins over the University of Mary and Minot State University last weekend, the Peacock secured their first berth into the NSIC Tournament. The quarterfinals of the NSIC Tournament will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 15; UIU's opponent and final seed in the tournament has yet to be decided.
 
Cracking into the AVCA Top 25... The American Volleyball Coaches Association, or AVCA, released their weekly NCAA Division II Coaches Top 25 Poll Monday afternoon and Upper Iowa dropped one spot and is now the top team receiving votes as the defacto No. 26 team in the nation. The Peacocks are one of eight teams from the Northern Sun Conference in the top 25 and receiving votes. Concordia University, St. Paul sits atop the rankings, while Southwest Minnesota State University is ranked fourth, the University of Minnesota Duluth is sixth, Northern State University is seventh, Winona State University is fifteenth, Augustana is eighteenth and Wayne State is now twenty-second in the poll. Upper Iowa's seven losses this season have all come at the hands of the teams ranked No. 1, 2, 7, 9, 15 (twice) and 16. The team is 3-7 against teams listed in the AVCA Top 25 or receiving votes and 17-0 against the remainder of their schedule.
 
Witness to History... Upper Iowa's 20 wins in 2017 set a new high mark for wins for the program since the Iowa Conference began sponsoring the sport 36 years ago; the team had reached 16 wins twice. The first time was in 2009 under the direction of Head Coach Shari Robertson when the Peacocks posted a 16-18 mark. More recently, Head Coach Aaron Nelson guided the Peacocks to a 16-13 record in 2012, which followed a 15-15 season in 2011. The Iowa Conference began sponsoring volleyball as a women's sport beginning with the 1982 season and Upper Iowa posted a 2-32 record in their first year. Prior to the 2005 season, when UIU competed as an NCAA DII Independent, the program only registered a double-digit win total four times over a 23-season span.