The Northern Sun Conference handed out their Volleyball All-Conference Awards today and three Peacocks were named to the teams including junior Anna Winter (First Team), Malissa LeClaire (Second Team) and Haley Weepie (Second Team). Winter's honor is her second straight after earning second team honors in 2017.
The last time UIU had a first team honoree was in 2011 with Sara Vance garnering the award. UIU had three performers on the All-NSIC team once before in 2012, but Skylar Lesan, Kayla Wagner and Melanie Behnke were all on the second team.
Head Coach Aaron Nelson said, "It's a great honor for each of the girls and our entire team to be recognized with such an incredible group of athletes."
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 has registered 271 kills (3rd NSIC) in her 59 sets in Northern Sun Conference matches for a 4.23 kills/set average, which ranks second in the conference. The junior from Rochester, Minn. is hitting .281, which ranks 18th among all offensive players in the NSIC, against NSIC opponents thanks to only 50 attack errors in 787 swings (2nd NSIC). Her season-high in kills came this past Saturday in a five-set loss at Wayne State College when she powered down 26 on a season-high 85 attempts. She has reached double figures in kills 21 times and hit or gone over 15 kills in a match 10 times. Most impressively, Winter has gone without an error in a match four times and has recorded an average of 12 kills in each of those matches.
LeClaire has reached some lofty milestones with a few matches to play in her senior campaign. The setter surpassed both the 1,000-dig mark and the 3,000-assists mark in her career within the last few weeks. LeClaire ranks sixth in the NSIC in assists/set with 10.68 and has consistently run Upper Iowa's offense which leads the conference in attack attempts. She is also a huge part of the Peacock defense, which ranks first in the conference in digs/set. The St. Michael, Minn. product puts her hands under 3.1 digs/set and is also adding .3 blocks/set. LeClaire is also a weapon at the service line where she has tallied 19 aces in NSIC play.
Weepie transitioned from an attacking role as a hitter for UIU to the team's libero as Upper Iowa began conference play. In her first full week on the job, she was named the NSIC Defensive Player of the Week after averaging 6.9 digs/set in matches against Winona State University, the University of Sioux Falls and Southwest Minnesota State University. The junior is currently second in the conference with 5.22 digs/set in NSIC matches. Weepie has posted the fourth most digs in a match among NSIC defenders this season with 36 at Wayne State this past Saturday. Weepie, much like LeClaire, has also been a weapon as a server converting 19 aces against Northern Sun foes.
Winter, LeClaire, Weepie and the Peacock volleyball team have enjoyed another good season and are currently 17-9 overall and 10-8 in the NSIC. The team is looking to secure a spot in the NSIC Tournament for the second time in their thirteen seasons in the conference. Upper Iowa will close out the regular season this Friday and Saturday with NSIC home matches against No. 9 Southwest Minnesota State University and the University of Sioux Falls.
