Upper Iowa volleyball picked up two wins on the first day of the Midwest Classic in Hammond, Ind. They improved to 8-10 on the season after defeating Saginaw Valley State 3-0 in game one and Lake Erie College 3-1 in game two.
The Peacocks close the tournament with one more contest tomorrow morning at 9:30 against Ursuline College.
UIU breezed to their 3-0 victory in game one, downing the Cardinals by scores of 25-17, 25-17 and 25-20.
Zoe Semelroth recorded a team-high 13 kills and a .550 hitting percentage while adding three aces and four blocks.
Nicole Pozorski dished out 33 assists, and
Lydia Imbrogno paced the team with 11 digs.
The Cardinals held a 15-13 lead in game one, but the Peacocks altered the momentum and went on an 11-1 burst, which put them ahead 24-17.
They continued their long runs as they started set two with an 8-0 lead. SVSU had a 6-1 scoring spree towards the end to trail by five (23-17), but it was not enough to catch the Peacocks out in front.
The Cardinals started set three with a 7-1 lead, but Upper Iowa showed their resilience and rattled off six unanswered points to tie up the game at 10 apiece. UIU ended the last set on a 6-1 run and earned the day's first victory while snapping their four-game losing streak.
"We had a great match from Zoe, and Nicole did a great job of varying the offense," said Head Coach
Jim Dietz. "The big spark was a long, aggressive serve run from
Morgan Block in set two."
Game two was highlighted by a career-high 25 kills from Semelroth, who aided her team in the 3-1 win over Lake Erie.
Nicole Pozorski handed out 51 assists and
McKenna Diermeier collected 17 digs.
Lydia Imbrogno notched a career-high seven aces in one contest.
The Peacocks dropped set one in a close 26-24 decision but rallied off the following three sets by scores of 25-13, 25-10 and 25-23.
"We had a shaky start to the first set but bounced back behind hitting from Zoe and
Marissa Becker," noted Dietz. "We had good blocks from
Alexis Moses and
Kailey Porter, and
Reese Martin had a great third set. Now we have one more match tomorrow that we want to win."
UIU recorded a .281 hitting percentage as a unit, while Lake Erie mustered a .142.
The Peacocks put up a tough fight in set one, as they were down 24-20 and rattled off four straight points to tie up the game. The Storm had the edge as they weaned out two consecutive points to take set one.
The Peacocks held a 15-12 advantage but went on a 10-1 run to comfortably take set two. They then went on to win set three by 15 points.
Set four was a closer battle as the game was tied up at 20. Both teams went on three-point runs to be tied at 23, but the Peacocks grabbed the last two points and capitalized on their second win of the day as Semelroth put one down to end the contest.
