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Women's Volleyball
UNI Sweeps Creighton
Nov. 4, 2006
Cedar Falls, Iowa - Junior outside hitter Laura Rowen (Hansell, Iowa) had a match-high 15 kills and Stephanie May (Dubuque, Iowa) had 18 digs to help lead the University of Northern Iowa volleyball team to a 3-0 win over Creighton Saturday night in front of a sold-out West Gym crowd of 2,052. Game scores were 30-23, 30-23 and 30-27. Late in the second game, May also became the school's all-time digs leader, passing current UNI head coach Bobbi (Becker) Petersen. Petersen had 1,457 digs from 1986-89, while May ended the match with 1,463 digs. UNI, which ranks 10th nationally in blocking averaging 3.31 per game, had 15 total team blocks in the three-game match. Amy Sampson (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) and Trista Humpal (New Hampton, Iowa) led the team with six blocks each. The Panthers held a slight lead through much of game one. Brittany Bakker (Dike, Iowa) had a pair of service aces, which was half of a four point run that gave UNI a 22-18 lead. But Creighton clawed back, scoring five of the next seven points to pull within 24-23. However, the Panthers rebounded by scoring the final six points of the game to win, 30-23. Creighton jumped out to a quick 6-3 lead in game two. UNI battled back, pulling even at 9-all after back-to-back solo blocks from Sampson, and later took the lead for good, 15-14, on a Humpal kill. Leading 21-18, UNI then went on an 8-2 run to pull ahead 29-20, eventually claming a 30-23 win. The Panthers jumped out to leads of 8-4, 12-7 and 14-10 in game three, but Creighton fought back to tie the score at 16-all. UNI scored the next three points, two on Bluejay errors, to go up 19-16. UNI maintained its slight edge the rest of the way, although Creighton pulled within one as late as 28-27. After a UNI timeout, Creighton had a service error and a hitting error to give the Panthers the 30-27 win.
With the victory, UNI improves to 21-7 overall, 13-2 in the Missouri Valley Conference. Creighton falls to 18-7 overall and 10-4 in league action. The Panthers play their last ever home match in the West Gym on Tuesday night (Nov. 7), when they host Western Illinois at 7:00 p.m. UNI opens its new home, the McLeod Center, on Sat., Nov 18 when it hosts Bradley at 8:00 p.m. |
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