Upper Iowa's volleyball team lost a three-set decision to No. 8 Wayne State College on the road on Friday, but the teams were separated by only two points in each of the three sets. Wayne State posted wins by counts of 25-23, 30-28 and 25-23 to improve to 17-3 on the year and 10-2 in the Northern Sun. Upper Iowa falls to 15-6 overall and 8-4 in the conference after the loss.
 
­The Peacocks posted an impressive 47 kills in the three sets, but hit .200 due to 23 attack errors. The nearly two dozen errors were fueled by 11 team blocks by the Wildcats. Wayne State converted 37 kills, but only committed 10 attack errors to hit .248. Both teams had trouble at the service line. UIU held an advantage in aces 9-5, but WSC made three less service errors 8-11 than their guests.
 
A 7-2 run in the first set gave Wayne State a 17-11 lead, but Upper Iowa rallied with a 7-2 run of their own to pull within one, 19-18. The scoring run was highlighted by three kills from Kaitlin Niedert. UIU kept pushing and a service ace from Charisma Herr tied the score at 21-21. Wayne State found their stride again and scored three-straight points before a service error and a block by Zoe Semelroth and Madelyn Rettler pulled UIU within one, 24-23. WSC scored the final point of the set on a service error to take a 1-0 set lead.
 
In the second set, it was Upper Iowa who took the first big lead. The Peacocks jumped out to a quick three-point advantage and pushed the margin to four, 11-7, on a kill from Semelroth. Midway through the frame, the Wildcats put together a 5-1 run to move out in front 18-16. Wayne State got to 25 first but couldn't close the set out with their first set point. A kill from Maggie Streightiff and an ace from Kaci Beesecker gave the Peacocks a set point at 26-25, but an error on the serve tied things up again. UIU had one more set point at 27-26, but came up empty on their attack. After the teams were knotted at 28-28, Wayne State scored the final two points on a pair of kills from Taya Beller to win 30-28.
 
Fueled by a 11-4 run, the Peacocks took a slim 8-7 lead in the third set and pushed it into a 19-11 advantage. UIU outscored their hosts thanks to kills by four different hitters including three from Niedert. Upper Iowa still led 21-15 later in the match when Wayne State launched a furious rally scoring 10 of the next 12 points to storm back for a 25-23 win.
 
Niedert led the UIU offense with 13 kills, while Semelroth and Rettler each added 10 and Streightiff chipped in nine. Nicole Pozorski handed out 36 assists and added 8 digs. Herr put her hands on 15 digs, while Rettler came in with 9 digs.
 
Upper Iowa will take on Augustana University on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. in Sioux Falls, S.D.