The Peacock volleyball team withstood a hard-charging Golden Eagle squad in the first set of their Northern Sun Conference match on Saturday and then cruised to a 3-0 win to complete a perfect weekend at home. Upper Iowa moves to 12-8 overall and 6-7 in the NSIC with their second victory this weekend, while the University of Minnesota Crookston falls to 3-18 overall and 2-11 in the conference.
 
In the first set, Upper Iowa held comfortable leads several times, but Minnesota Crookston was able to fight back each time. A 3-0 run by the home team established another good-sized lead, 20-14, for UIU, but UMC scored seven of the next eight points to knot the score at 21-all. The Peacocks found their form down the stretch scoring four of the final six points on a pair of kills from Emily Kono and daggers from Sarah Johnson and Maggie Streightiff.
 
UMC hit .186 in the first frame with 12 kills and held the Peacocks to a .118 hitting percentage thanks to 10 attack errors which offset their 16 kills.
 
UIU's offense flew high in the second and third sets; the team hit .344 in the second set and .455 in the third set with a combined 33 kills and just seven attack errors in the final two frames. While the Peacock offense picked up, their defense stayed steady and continued to limit the Golden Eagles' opportunities. UMC notched just 16 kills with 10 attack errors in the final two sets combined.
 
In the end, the Peacocks logged advantages in points (63-31), kills (49-28), aces (8-2), blocks (6-1), assists (46-26) and digs (54-45).
 
Zoe Semelroth knocked down 12 kills from the middle, while Streightiff and Johnson added eight kills apiece and Kono and Martha Pace came off the bench to each score six points on kills. Nicole Pozorski ran the offense smoothly earning 38 assists with four kills of her own. Kaci Beesecker picked up 19 digs and Madelyn Rettler and Pozorski grabbed 10 digs apiece. Johnson had her timing down at the net scoring a match-high five blocks.
 
The Peacocks will be on the road this coming Thursday, Oct. 20 at Concordia University, St. Paul, but the team will return for two straight home matches on Saturday, Oct. 22 and Tuesday, Oct. 25. UIU will host Minnesota State University, Mankato on Saturday at 5 p.m. and Winona State University on Tuesday at 6 p.m.