The Peacock volleyball team won a pair of matches on Friday at the Miner Invitational in Rolla, Mo. Upper Iowa defeated the University of Arkansas at Monticello in straight sets in the morning session and then outlasted the University of Missouri Science and Technology in the evening session to grab a five-set win and improve to 2-0.
 
Following the matches, Head Coach Aaron Nelson said, "First of all, it was great to get to play again. The team did a nice job of handling our side this morning all the way throughout. We served tough and were able to take away Arkansas-Monticello's strengths while doing an excellent job earning our points. Against Missouri S&T, we weren't quite as sharp but we battled to get those first two sets. We got tentative in the third and S&T is too good to let them off the mat. It was a big step for us to right the ship and win a huge match on the road early."
 
Upper Iowa will return to the court at Missouri S&T on Saturday morning for a pair of matches. The Peacocks will take on Purdue University-Northwest at 8:30 a.m. and then close out their run at the tournament with a 1 p.m. match against Missouri Western State University.
 
UIU 3 – UAM 0 (25-12, 25-14, 25-8)
The Peacocks dominated their first match of the day with a three-set sweep over the Blossoms. Upper Iowa completed the sweep with set wins of 25-12, 25-14 and 25-8 to claim their first win of the season.
 
UIU hit .336 in the match converting 47 kills in just 107 swings at the net with just 11 attack errors. The team held Arkansas-Monticello to a hitting percentage of .011 surrendering only 17 kills and forcing 16 attack errors.
 
Madelyn Rettler and Kaitlin Niedert paced the attack with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Zoe Semelroth and Maggie Streightiff each added seven kills, while Kylie Willis chipped in five. Nicole Pozorski set up the Peacock hitters with 25 assists and added four kills.
 
While the Peacock offense was cruising, the defense put their hands on 53 digs and 6 blocks. Charisma Herr led the back line with 18 digs, while Rettler and Pozorski registered 10 and 9, respectively. Streightiff scored three blocks at the net including a pair of solo denials.
 
UIU 3 – MST 2 (28-26, 27-25, 22-25, 23-25, 15-13)
The Peacocks and Miners locked up in a great battle on Friday evening. Both teams came into the match receiving votes in the AVCA Preseason Top-25 and a dominating win under their belts earlier in the day. During the match, the teams were tied on 34 occasions and traded lead positions 15 times.
 
Upper Iowa took the first two sets, but had to work beyond the 25-point threshold to secure the wins (28-26 and 27-25). Missouri S&T rallied with tight wins in the third and fourth sets (25-22 and 25-23) to send the match into a fifth and final set. UIU claimed the final set 15-13 to post their second win on the day and improve to 2-0.
 
In the deciding set, the Peacocks jumped out to a commanding 6-0 lead with Sarah Stevelinck on the service line. During the early run, Upper Iowa recorded three kills and a block behind big plays from Rettler, Streightiff and Pozorski. The home team buckled down and slowly began to creep back into the scoring column until they took a three-point lead thanks to an 11-2 run. Trailing 11-8, the Peacocks scored five straight highlighted by a pair of Niedert kills. The teams exchanged the final few points and UIU claimed the 15-13 win on a service error by MST.
 
Rettler continued her big day on the attack with 18 kills, while Streightiff added 12 and Niedert notched 8. Pozorski handed out 39 assists to set up the attack and added 12 digs defensively. Herr, the team's libero, picked up 25 digs, while Rettler added 14 and Stevelinck recorded 10. At the net, Streightiff blocked 8 Miner attacks and Willis added 7 blocks from her middle position. Semelroth was effective on the service line with 4 aces.