Panther volleyball to face Drake in Des Moines

UNI volleyball at Drake

6 p.m. CT | Nov. 16
Des Moines, Iowa | Knapp Center (6,400)
1540 KXEL - Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
ESPN+
Live Stats

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Marquee matchups do not come much bigger than Wednesday's meeting at the Knapp Center between the first-place UNI Panther volleyball team and the second-place Drake Bulldogs in the final regular season contest for both squads. The Panthers own a 17-match win streak against Missouri Valley Conference competition including last month's 3-1 victory against the Bulldogs in the McLeod Center. Drake has won all of the 10 tilts that followed the defeat to its in-state rival.

The Panthers are coming off home wins against the Southern Illinois Salukis and the Missouri State Bears which allowed UNI to claim the program's 20^th conference regular season championship. Sydney Petersen earned MVC Defensive Player of the Week recognition for a league-high third time this season following a weekend that included 54 total digs for the libero featuring the 1,500^th dig of her career.

DRAKE BULLDOGS
• Drake - the only opponent that UNI has played in all 48 seasons of Panther volleyball history - is 15-87-2 versus UNI across 104 prior meetings.
• The Bulldogs, which landed at ninth place in the preseason poll, is guaranteed a second-place finish this year.
• Drake is on a 10-match win streak including eight sweeps since its 3-1 loss at UNI in October.
• Setter Addison Beagle tops all MVC performers with 12.40 assists per set and 0.48 aces per set in conference contests.
• The Bulldogs closed their 2021 season with a 6-12 league record and were one match back of the Panthers in ninth place.

PANTHER NOTES
• Prior to UNI's championship this year, no MVC team had ever won the regular season title one year removed from either a losing league record or a finish below sixth place in the conference standings.
• UNI's 17-0 league record is better than all but Wright State (18-0, Horizon) nationally.
• The Panthers are perfect in fourth sets in MVC play (11-0). The overall record for fourth frames is 15-3 with all 15 of those wins in succession.
• Under head coach Bobbi Petersen, UNI fought off a match point to earn a victory on 14 occasions including four times in the past 12-plus months (Nov. 11, 2022 against Southern Illinois, Sept. 23, 2022 at Valparaiso, Nov. 13, 2021 at Evansville, Oct. 29, 2021 at Drake).
• This is the final scheduled in-state tilt within the first year since 2003 that all four of Iowa's Division I teams play each other at least once. UNI and Iowa State are 2-1 in this season's state series, and Drake and Iowa are 1-2.
• Sydney Petersen tallied her 1,500th dig and surpassed 500 career sets on her way to MVC Defensive Player of the Week honors. The Becker-Petersen family has a grand total of 4,953 digs. Sydney Petersen (1,500) tops mother Bobbi (Becker) Petersen (1,457), twin sister Baylee Petersen (1,033), and aunts Jennifer (Becker) Hansen (533) and Michelle (Becker) Bolte (430).
• Inga Rotto has not missed a single match during her UNI career with 152 consecutive contests played – believed to be the Missouri Valley Conference record – along with UNI records of 152 total matches played and 557 total sets played. In another playing streak, Emily Holterhaus has appeared in 118 tilts in a row since joining UNI.
• Carly Spies had a league-leading 2.00 blocks per set last week with a then-season-high eight blocks against Southern Illinois and a season-high 10 blocks against Missouri State in her first collegiate double-double.
• Inga Rotto is 31 terminations shy of 1,000 career kills and also 13 rejections away from 400 career blocks, and her .373 attack percentage in 2022 would rank as the best single-season mark for any Panther with at least 200 kills in UNI history. Tayler Alden needs 11 more kills to reach a career total of 500.
• Head coach Bobbi Petersen is 10-for-22 in challenge attempts. In comparison, Panther opponents are a combined 14-for-35.

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