The No. 21 Peacock volleyball team came within points of upsetting yet another AVCA top-10 team on Saturday afternoon, but the No. 9 St. Cloud State University Huskies snuck out of Fayette with a five-set victory on Senior Day. Upper Iowa won the first two sets 25-19 and 25-23 before St. Cloud State captured 25-23, 25-20, and 16-14 wins to take the match. The Huskies improved to 23-5 (15-5) on the season, while the Peacocks fell to 20-8 (12-8 NSIC). 

Despite the loss, Upper Iowa qualified for the NSIC Championships by earning the 8th-seed in the tournament. The Peacocks will now head to Sioux Falls, S.D. to face the top-seeded Northern State University on Friday evening beginning at 7:30 p.m. The winner of the match will advance to play the winner of the 4th-seed Wayne State College versus 5th-seed St. Cloud State match on Saturday at 7 p.m. The championship will take place at 3 p.m. on Sun., Nov. 24. 

Upper Iowa recognized a group of six seniors prior to the match including Krisha Tonne, Haley Weepie, Gabby Holmes, Carlee Ketchum, Claire Milnes, and Anna Winter. These young ladies will end their volleyball careers as the winningest class in program history after leading the program to 72 wins in the last four years with three appearances at the NSIC Tournament. 

• The match could not have gotten off to a better start for the Peacocks as the home team scored the first six points of the game and then added another five unanswered to take an 11-2 lead in the first set. The advantage grew to 10 after a Kaitlin Niedert kill put the Peacocks up 17-7 and Upper Iowa was able to outlast a late Husky rally for a 25-19 win. 
• The second set was highly contested with nobody leading by more than two points the entire way. The frame was tied on 19 occasions and saw three lead changes as neither team wanted to bend. The Peacocks hit .390 in the frame but the Huskies weren't too far behind with a .325 efficiency. After battling back-and-forth, a double block by Claire Milnes and Niedert followed by a kill from Anna Winter made it set-point for the Peacocks at 24-22. Linsey Rachel knocked down a kill to get back within one, but Milnes' fifth strike of the set gave UIU a 2-0 lead in the match. 
• Upper Iowa fell behind 20-16 in the third frame after surrendering a 7-2 spurt to the visitors. The Huskies pushed their lead to 22-19 over the course of the next few rallies but UIU scored four unanswered to take a 23-22 lead needing just two points to end the match. Unfortunately for the Peacocks, SCSU went on to score three straight to force another set. 
• The Huskies found some magic again in the fourth set and used a trio of 4-0 runs to go from trailing 16-12 to need just one more point at 24-18. The Peacocks fought back with a pair of kills but the comeback was too late as St. Cloud State won 25-20. 
• Upper Iowa trailed 8-4 when the teams switched sides at the halfway point of the 5th set but was able to cut the gap to just one with back-to-back-to-back kills from Maggie Streightiff out of the right side. The teams traded four points each before the Huskies floored a kill for a two-point advantage at 13-11. The Peacocks ended up taking the lead and setting up match point thanks to two Winter kills and a Carlee Ketchum ace, but the Huskies countered with three of their own points thanks to an error by the home team and a pair of blocks. 

• Anna Winter led all attackers with 25 kills and only committed four errors in 68 attempts (.309) in her final home match for Upper Iowa. With those kills, she moved into 2nd all-time with 1,309 career kills
• Haley Weepie tallied 28 digs and two aces to lead the team in both categories. She now sits in 3rd all-time with 1,375 career digs
• Carlee Ketchum (60 assists), Claire Milnes (17 kills), Maggie Streightiff (16 kills), and Charisma Herr (19) all recorded career-highs in the win, while Kasey Brennan tallied a season-high 20 digs

• Upper Iowa surpassed 100 digs for the first time since Oct. 27, 2018 when the Peacocks accumulated 132
• The Peacocks hit an impressive .370 in the first two sets but the Huskies made the proper adjustments at the break to hold Upper Iowa to a .171 hitting clip the rest of the way