University of Northern Iowa Athletics
University of Northern Iowa
*Drake (Trading Cards)
UNI Sweeps Drake
11/19/2005 7:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 19, 2005
Cedar Falls, Iowa - Ashten Stelken (Manchester, Iowa) tied her career high with 13 kills to help lead the University of Northern Iowa volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep of Drake Saturday night at the West Gym. Game scores were 30-23, 30-15 and 30-16.
Stelken hit .480 on the night (14-2-25) and was one of three UNI players to post a hitting percentage of better than .400. Junior middle blocker Trista Humpal (New Hampton, Iowa) led the way by hitting at .500 clip (13-2-22), while senior middle Stephanie Germann (LeMars, Iowa) hit .450 (12-3-20). As a team, the Panthers hit .361 (60-17-119) on the evening.
UNI never trailed at any point in the match, jumping to quick leads in each game. The Panthers burst to a 6-0 lead in game one, a 6-2 lead in game two, and a 6-1 advantage in game three and never looked back. UNI racked up 60 kills in the three games to just 28 for Drake, and also won the battle of digs (53-34), service aces (6-1) and blocks (8.0-5.0).
Germann had a double-double on the night, adding 12 digs to go with her 12 kills. Libero Stephanie May (Dubuque, Iowa) also had 12 digs to tie for team high honors.
With the victory, UNI (19-11, 12-6 Missouri Valley Conference) earns the number 4 seed in next week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Volleyball Tournament, to be played at the West Gym, Nov. 25-26. The Panthers will open on Friday (Nov. 25) at 12:30 p.m. against fifth-seeded Creighton. Should UNI win that match, it would face top-seeded Wichita State at 7:30 p.m. that night.
