Upper Iowa scored a much needed 3-2 victory on Friday night at St. Cloud State University. The Peacocks improved to 14-7 overall and 7-6 in the Northern Sun Conference to move into a three-way tie for seventh place in the NSIC standings. UIU is tied with Minnesota State University, Mankato and St. Cloud State and gave the visitors their sixth win in the last seven matches.
In a back and forth match, the Peacocks were able to rally after a first-set loss (18-25) to take sets two (25-23) and three (25-22) before the Huskies forced a deciding fifth set with a 25-23 win in the fourth. Upper Iowa took control of the final set early and then held on for a 15-13 win to pull even with St. Cloud State in the standings.
Malissa LeClaire passed another career milestone on Friday. Thanks to her 16 digs in the match, the senior from St. Michael, Minn. surpassed the 1,000-dig mark in her career. She now has 1,004 digs for the Peacocks
Haley Weepie led the defense with 32 digs on the night, while
Madi Meier,
Haley Poula and
Gabby Holmes all added 12 apiece. At the net,
Bethany Lovhaug and Poula both grabbed 5 blocks and
Lauren Wombles added 4.
Offensively, the Peacocks were led by
Anna Winter, who scored 17 kills with only 3 attack errors.Wombles and
Kaitlin Niedert put down 12 and 11, respictively. Lovhaug added 9 in the middle and Poula scored 7 times with a kill.
The Peacocks travel to face the No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 4 p.m.
