THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK VOLLEYBALL... The Peacocks have won six of their last eight matches with the only two blemishes coming against No. 2 Northern State University, 3-1, and at the No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth, 3-0. Upper Iowa will look to make it eight out of ten and restart a win-streak with a pair of matches in Dorman Gymnasium on Friday and Saturday. UIU will host the Beavers of Bemidji State University on Friday at 6 p.m. and the Golden Eagles of the University of Minnesota Crookston on Saturday at 3 p.m. Both BSU and UMC come into the weekend with 2-12 marks in the Northern Sun Conference, while UIU heads into the matches with a 7-7 NSIC record.
 
LIVE OPTIONS… Live stats and webcasts will be available this weekend through the links at UIUPeacocks.com/Live. Friday's match will broadcast live on KCRG-TV 9.2 and both matches will stream live on the Stretch Internet App for fans with Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple or Android televisions.
 
STACKING UP AGAINST 37 YEARS…  Upper Iowa has posted 14 wins so far in 2018 and with six regular season matches remaining on the schedule the team is within reach of one of the best season's in program history for the second straight year. The program soared to new heights in 2017 with 21 wins to set a new high-mark for wins for the program since the Iowa Conference began sponsoring the sport 37 years ago; the team has reached 16 wins twice in that time.
 
IN THE RANKINGS… Upper Iowa leads the NSIC in digs/set with 19.72 and is ranked 10th in the country. The extra digs have led to more opportunities for the offense and UIU is ranked 10th in the nation and leads the NSIC in attacks/set with 40.22. Malissa LeClaire ranks 5^th in the Northern Sun in both assists/set with 10.6 and aces/set at .41, while Haley Poula is ranked 11th in the conference at .37. Bethany Lovhaug is ranked 5th in the NSIC blocks with 1.04 per set, while Anna Winter is 8th in the Northern Sun in kills/set with 3.74. Haley Weepie (7th) and Gabby Holmes (17th) are both in the top-20 in the NSIC for digs/set with 4.51 and 3.47, respectively.
 
LOOKING IN THE REARVIEW… After scoring a pair of wins over Winona State, 3-0, and St. Cloud State, 3-2, to open the week, UIU dropped two of the three sets to Minnesota Duluth by a 25-23 score. The Peacocks hit .235 for the week with 141 kills, while their opponents hit .214, but picked up 159 kills. Anna Winter had a monster week with 51 kills (4.6/set) and added 9 digs. Kaitlyn Niedert (26) and Lauren Wombles (23) combined for 49 kills, and Bethany Lovhaug (19) and Haley Poula (16) added 35 kills. Malissa LeClaire passed out 112 assists (10.2/set) and added 30 digs sending her past the 1,000-dig mark in her career. Haley Weepie's 59 digs (5.36/set) from the libero position led the Peacock defense. Lauren Wombles (12) and Bethany Lovhaug (9) combined to lead UIU's defense at the net; the Peacocks had 21 team blocks in the three matches
 
SCOUTING THE BEAVERS… The Beavers have fell in eight consecutive matches and fell to University of Minnesota, Crookston, No. 4 Concordia University-St. Paul and Minnesota State University, Mankato in last week's action. The Beavers are led on offense by sophomore Anna Averkamp who has totaled 177 kills (2.39 k/s) on 489 attacks while also hitting at a .170 clip. She is followed by Julie Touchett who has totaled 147 kills (1.84 k/s) while freshman Greta Paszek follows closely with 137 kills (1.90 k/s). Bemidji State's attack is coordinated by freshman Mary Campbell who has stepped in to fill setting position after Maddie Mackinac went down with injury. Since taking over the setting duties, Campbell has come on to average 7.84 assists per set and now leads the team with 394 assists. On the defensive backcourt, BSU is led by junior Emma Hallmann and sophomore Becka Cronin. Hallmann paces the Beavers with 284 digs (3.55 d/s) and needs 83 digs to reach the 1,000 dig milestone.
 
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES… The Golden Eagles are looking to build off one of the best weekends of the season as they beat Bemidji State and took sets off Minnesota State University, Mankato and defending NCAA Division II National Champion Concordia University, St. Paul. Minnesota Crookston averaged 10.1 kills per set last week and hit .171. The Golden Eagles were led by Deaira Gresham, who averaged 2.91 kills per set and hit .152 for Minnesota Crookston, and Porsha Porath also had a strong weekend as she averaged 2.73 kills per set and hit .228 for the Golden Eagles. At setter, Sydney Kruisselbrink tallied 7.73 assists per set. On the serve, Lauren Ulibarri made an impact with six service aces last week as the Golden Eagles notched 19 on the three matches. Defensively, Katie Lienemann paced Minnesota Crookston with 3.27 digs per set, while Gresham tallied 2.64 digs per set.