Peacock volleyball participated in their first day of the Seawolf Invitational in Anchorage, Alaska and earned a split on the day after defeating Cal Poly Humboldt 3-1 and dropping to No. 14 Alaska Anchorage 3-2. Upper Iowa holds a 1-1 overall record after the completion of tonight's contests.
 
In their first set of the 2023 season, the Peacocks set the tone and edged out the Lumberjacks 25-18, powered by a five-point slide to gain the 7-2 advantage early on. They struggled to find their footing in the second and ended up falling 25-17. UIU regained their ground in the third and fourth sets, coming out on top with a 25-20 decision in both and claiming their first victory of the season. 
 
Emily Kono led the crew with a monstrous 17 kills. Following closely behind her was Zoe Semelroth tallying 14 and Martha Pace with nine. 
 
Nicole Pozorski tallied 40 assists, while Kaci Beesecker registered 16 digs to help propel the team to their triumph. 
 
In game two, the Peacocks started off with lots of momentum in their arsenal after sailing past the Seawolves 25-15 in the very first set, recording no attack errors, while their opponents had seven. UIU had a 0.522 hitting percentage (12-23). 
 
The teams flipped the script in the second stint as AAU soared past UIU with a score of 25-13. The Peacocks struggled to connect as they had a 0.069 hitting percentage (7-29) and three service errors. 
 
Upper Iowa got back into the swing of things in the third set, raising percentages and recording more kills while doing their job on the back line, as well. 
 
The Peacock offense had trouble with consistency between sets as they fell in the fourth frame. The fifth set was a nailbiter, but the Peacocks could not keep the ball within the parameters, and fell 15-13 to end the night.  
 
Semelroth paced the team with 14 kills, while Kono tallied eight and Pozorski seven. Beesecker and McKenna Diermeier combined for 27 digs in the contest, while Pozorski handed out 35 assists. 
 
UIU sees one match tomorrow against Alaska Fairbanks at 5 p.m. and concludes their weekend with St. Cloud State on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.