MATCH STATS
- Northern Iowa def. Northern Illinois 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-21)
- Northern Iowa climbs to 5-2; Northern Illinois drops to 0-9
- Cedar Falls, Iowa
- Attendance: 1,971
- Box Score
After starting the 2017 campaign with six consecutive road matches, Northern Iowa made short work of Northern Illinois in its first appearance at the McCleod Center, winning in straight sets and improving coach Bobbi Petersen’s record in home openers to 13-5.
Northern Iowa’s Bri Weber paced the Panther offense with 15 kills and setter Heather Hook, who recently became the 7th player in UNI history to record 3,000 career assists, added 32 more to her total.
For Northern Illinois, freshman outside Kaylee Martin notched 10 kills and junior middle blocker Chrystal McAlpin added five, converting at a .500 clip. As a team, however, the Huskies managed only a .148 hitting percentage for the night.
The first set was all Northern Iowa as the Panthers jumped to an early 7-1 lead on back-to-back kills from junior middle blocker Piper Thomas, who also recorded four blocks in the match. By the time they won the set 25-14, the Panthers had already recorded 17 kills on .308 hitting.
The second was more of the same with the Panthers taking a commanding 17-10 lead on a five-point serving run by sophomore outside Karlie Taylor. The third remained much closer until consecutive aces by Taylor made the score 21-16. The match ended on Weber’s 15th kill of the night.
The Panthers travel to Kansas City, Missouri this weekend to take on Rutgers, South Dakota and Missouri-Kansas City before a much-anticipated match on September 12 against in-state rival, Iowa State (RV).
Northern Illinois will look for its first victory in Iowa City, Iowa, where they play twice against Iowa and once against Iowa State this weekend.
What do you think? Does @heatherhook11 get your vote for a #SCtop10 play? #UNIFight pic.twitter.com/YFvyFiEiUD
— UNIVolleyball (@UNIVolleyball) September 6, 2017
PRESS RELEASES
Courtesy: University of Northern Iowa Athletics
UNI SWEEPS HUSKIES IN MCLEOD, 3-0
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The University of Northern Iowa volleyball squad sent its McLeod Center faithful home with a 3-0 sweep of the Northern Illinois Huskies on Tuesday night.
UNI won by set scores of 25-14, 25-16, 25-21 to improve to 5-2 overall. NIU falls to 0-8 on the season.
Junior Bri Weber paced the Panther attack with 15 kills and eight digs. Senior Heather Hook ran the offense and nearly recorded a triple-double with 32 assists, nine digs and seven kills. Junior Kendyl Sorge posted a match-high 18 digs.
UNI came out strong in the opening set by hitting .308 and limiting NIU to .000 hitting percentage. UNI had 17 kills in the first set, while NIU was held to six.
The Panthers held the Huskies to .089 hitting percentage in the second set as UNI notched a 25-16 victory.
UNI closed out the sweep with 14 kills in the third set.
UNI will travel to Kansas City, Missouri, to take part in the UMKC Tournament this weekend. UNI will match up against Rutgers, South Dakota and UMKC.
Courtesy: Northern Illinois Athletics
Huskies Suffer Road Setback at Northern Iowa
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team began its four-match stretch against opponents from the State of Iowa on Tuesday night (Sept. 5), falling to Northern Iowa, 25-14, 25-16, 25-21 at the McLeod Center. Freshman Kaylee Martin (Sterling, Ill./Sterling) led the Huskies with 10 kills.
“Credit to Northern Iowa tonight, I feel like they won more of the longer, tough rallies, but we definitely showed signs of improvement, especially in the third set,” said NIU head coach Ray Gooden. “We are playing good teams and we aren’t getting the chance to train it, we are having to do it on the job.
“Kaylee Martin had better rhythm tonight, Miranda Karlen came in and did a real nice job in the back row and our setters had more variety in their offense. What it comes down to is executing consistently and, while we are improving, it still isn’t up to this level with the quality of the teams we are competing against.”
Northern Iowa (5-2) raced out to a 7-1 start in the opening set. The Huskies and Panthers then played the majority of the rest of the set even until Northern Iowa closed the set with a 5-0 run to take the set, 25-14. The Panthers hit .308 in the opening set with 17 kills, led by four kills each from Bri Weber and Piper Thomas.
In the second set, Northern Iowa led by three, 12-9, until the Panthers used a 5-0 run to push its lead to eight. NIU (0-8) answered with the next four point to cut the Northern Iowa lead in half, but the Huskies were unable to get any closer in the set, falling 25-16.
Martin recorded seven kills in the set for the Huskies, hitting .375, Weber and Heather Hook each tallied four kills to pace Northern Iowa.
The third set went back-and-forth with neither team able to lead by more than three until a 4-1 run gave Northern Iowa a 22-17 advantage. NIU responded with a 3-0 burst to cut the Panther lead back to just a pair, 22-20, but the Panthers scored three of the next four points to close out the set, 25-21.
Weber posted seven kills in the final set to finish with a match-high 15; Hook recorded 32 assists for the Panthers while Kendyl Sorge had a match-high 18 digs.
Junior Chrystal McAlpin (Calumet Park, Ill./Shepard) posted five kills while hitting .500 for NIU; senior Anna Brereton (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) led the Huskies with 13 digs.
NIU will return to action this weekend as the Huskies travel to Iowa City for the Iowa Invitational. NIU will meet Iowa on Friday, Sept. 8 at 1 p.m., before matching up with No. 22 Iowa State on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. The Huskies and Hawkeyes will then meet for a second time on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m.
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