The Northern Sun Conference Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Poll has been released and the Peacocks have been picked to finish ninth in the conference. Upper Iowa is coming into 2019 after two straight appearances in the exclusive NSIC Tournament, which hosts only the top eight teams in the conference.
Northern State University, the defending NSIC Co-Champions, is the pick of the league coaches to win the conference this season. The Wolves are coming off a season in which they won a share of the NSIC regular season title and advanced to the NCAA Central Region Tournament. NSU received six first place votes to tally 209 points.
Minnesota Duluth, which shared the NSIC regular season title with NSU last year, and Concordia-St. Paul tied for second as both received 203 points. CSP received five first place votes while UMD garnered four. Wayne State was fourth in the poll with 178 points while Southwest Minnesota State was fifth with 170 points and the other first place vote.
The volleyball team was 18-11 overall and 11-9 in the NSIC posting the second-most wins in a season in program history. The 18 wins in 2018 follow 2017's record-setting 21 wins. UIU touted one of the best defenses in the high-powered NSIC last season posting the most digs in the conference (19.9/set), the second-best opponent hitting percentage (.164) and the sixth most blocks (2.0/set).
Anna Winter, UIU's NSIC Player to Watch, earned her second straight All-NSIC honor in 2018. Winter led the team with 404 kills last season with a hitting percentage of .257. The junior outside hitter was second in the NSIC in kills/set (3.9) and added 123 digs, 35 blocks, 11 aces and 8 assists. Her season-high in kills came in a five-set loss at Wayne State College when she powered down 26 on a season-high 85 attempts. The Rochester, Minn. native reached double figures in kills 21 times and hit or surpassed 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; she committed only 89 errors in 1,225 swings in 2018. Following the 2018-19 year, Winter was named the Willis R. Kelly Scholar-Athlete Award and Butch Raymond Scholarship recipient and carries a 4.00 GPA
Upper Iowa's defense in 2019 will be led by seniors
Haley Weepie (4.73 digs/set) and
Gabby Holmes (3.22 digs/set), but the Peacocks will have work to do at the net after the graduation of three middles from the program including starters
Lauren Wombles and
Bethany Lovhaug. The Peacocks will also run their offense through new hands at the setter spot after the graduation of three-year starter and All-NSIC performer
Malissa LeClaire.
Offensively, the Peacocks return junior outside hitter
Kaitlin Niedert along with Winter. Niedert finished second on the team with 258 kills and a 2.87 per set average last season. Head Coach
Aaron Nelson, entering his ninth season as the head coach, will look to
Maggie Streightiff,
Claire Milnes,
Carlee Ketchum,
Kasey Brennan and other returners and newcomers to add to the experienced core.
The 2019 NSIC Volleyball season will begin with non-conference matches on Thursday, September 5 while the NSIC schedule begins Friday, September 20. The 2019 NSIC regular season champion will be determined by the 20-game conference schedule. The top eight teams will play in the single elimination
NSIC Volleyball Tournament on November 22-24. All three rounds of the tournament will take place at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and aired live on MidcoSN.
Upper Iowa opens up the season in Houghton, Mich. against Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Parkside, and Michigan Tech on Sept. 6-7. The Peacocks first home weekend is set for Sept. 27-28 against Minnesota Crookston and Bemidji State.
