Panther volleyball looks to lock up league title in last home contests

UNI volleyball vs. Southern Illinois (Military Appreciation)

6 p.m. CT | Nov. 11
Cedar Falls, Iowa | McLeod Center (6,500)
UNIPanthers.com (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
ESPN3
Live Stats

UNI volleyball vs. Missouri State (Senior Night)

5 p.m. CT | Nov. 12
Cedar Falls, Iowa | McLeod Center (6,500)
1540 KXEL - Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
ESPN3
Live Stats

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – With this year's Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship in its sights, the UNI Panther volleyball team will play the Southern Illinois Salukis and the Missouri State Bears this weekend in its last 2022 home matches in the McLeod Center. Senior Night is on tap for Saturday featuring postgame recognition of Payton Ahrenstorff, Kaylee Donner, Baylee Petersen, Sydney Petersen, Inga Rotto, and Carly Spies.

UNI's recent road trip included back-to-back road sweeps at Illinois State and Bradley to climb within one more win or one Drake Bulldogs loss of guaranteeing at least a share of the league crown. The magic number for the Panthers to win an outright title is two. Tayler Alden was rewarded for her efforts from the previous weekend by being chosen as the MVC Player of the Week. Alden recorded 11.00 assists per set, 2.33 kills per set, and a conference-high .619 hitting clip while leading UNI's offense to a .370 team attack percentage.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS SALUKIS
• Southern Illinois is 13-64 against UNI including a 3-0 home loss this past month.
• The Salukis finished in 12th place for the 2022 MVC preseason poll but enter the final weekend of league action in third place at 10-5.
• Southern Illinois secured a berth in this year's conference tournament with its four-set win over Evansville on Senior Night.
• Middle hitter Imani Hartfield leads the league with an overall attack percentage of .381 that sits just above UNI's Inga Rotto (.377).
• Back in 2021, the Salukis went 5-26 overall and 0-18 against league foes in their first-ever winless conference season in program history.

MISSOURI STATE BEARS
• Missouri State has a 28-56 record versus UNI after a 3-1 home loss in September.
• The Bears were seventh in the MVC's preseason poll and occupy eighth place in the current conference standings.
• Missouri State is coming off a 3-1 Senior Night triumph against Indiana State last week.
• Setter Morgan Sprague ranks among the league leaders with an average of 10.74 assists per set for the season.
• Last year's Bears closed their slate with a 17-13 overall mark and an 8-10 conference record for a seventh-place finish.

PANTHER NOTES
• En route to MVC Player of the Week honors last week, Tayler Alden got to 1,000 assists in a season for the first time. She also lifted her career total to 2,578 assists to pass Kinsey Caldwell (2,549) for 10th in UNI history.
• Inga Rotto has played in 150 consecutive contests since 2018 without missing a single match – believed to be the best individual playing streak in Missouri Valley Conference history – and owns UNI's records for total matches (150) and total sets (548). Plus, her .377 attack percentage this year would rank as the best single-season mark for any Panther with at least 200 kills in UNI history.
• Sydney Petersen is six sets away from 500 career sets played between Texas and UNI, and her 1,446 career digs are good for second in family history behind mom and head coach Bobbi Petersen (1,457).
• Payton Ahrenstorff and Kira Fallert each reached 500 career digs Saturday at Bradley. Fallert also had a big offensive weekend with .415 hitting and a 4.67 kills per set average on last weekend's road trip.
• Emily Holterhaus has appeared in 116 consecutive tilts since joining UNI in 2019.
• Head coach Bobbi Petersen is 9-for-18 in video challenges. In comparison, Panther opponents are a combined 12-for-31.
• The Panthers are on pace to become the first MVC team ever to win a regular season title after ending the previous year with a losing league record and finishing lower than sixth place in the conference standings.
• UNI's 15-0 league record is better than all but Wright State (16-0, Horizon) nationally.
• The Panthers are 13-6 in "deuce sets" and 6-2 in extended frames featuring four wins in a row during "bonus ball".
• UNI is perfect in fourth sets in MVC play (9-0). The overall record for fourth frames is 13-3 with all 13 of those wins in succession.

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