• The Panthers secured the Missouri Valley Conference title with wins over Missouri State and Wichita State. It marks the fourth MVC championship for the Panthers under head coach Bobbi Petersen and the eighth overall. The Panthers also won five Gateway Conference titles.

• A pair of wins this weekend would give UNI a perfect record in Missouri Valley Conference action for the fifth time since 1995. The 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2000 teams each ran the table in league play.

• The Panthers enter the week on a 24-match win streak. This is matches a streak by UNI during the 2000 season. The streak is the second-longest win streak among Division I teams, trailing only Penn State. The Panthers have lost only 12 sets during that stretch.

• UNI moved to No. 21 in the Nov. 16 edition of the AVCA Division I Coaches Poll. The Panthers entered the poll for the first time since 2003 on Nov. 2 when they were in a tie for No. 25.

• The Panthers will recognize seniors Kali Karsten and Shannon Aschoff prior to the match against Drake. Aschoff leaves ranked in the top 15 in career kills and kills per set at UNI.

• The Panthers enter the weekend 8-1 in the McLeod Center. UNI’s only home loss came on Sept. 2 vs. No. 11 Iowa State.

• Sophomore Michelle Burow has a .319 career hitting percentage, which ranks first in the UNI career record books.

• Bre Payton earned MVC Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career on Monday. The sophomore setter hit .419 and averaged 2.67 kills, 10.33 assists and 4.83 digs per set in the Panthers’ two wins last week.

• Amy Braun earned her second MVC Freshman of the Week honor on Monday. Braun averaged 3.33 kills and 3.17 digs per set in UNI’s wins over Illinois State and Indiana State.

• At 26-2, UNI is tied for the fourth-highest win-loss percentage among NCAA Division I teams.

• UNI ranks seventh in the nation with 14.77 kills per set. This is a testament to UNI’s offensive balance, as the Panthers do not have a single player ranking in the top 250 individually in kills per set.

• UNI’s 14-0 start to Missouri Valley Conference action is its best start since the 2000 team went a perfect 18-0 through league play.

• The Panthers rank No. 1 in The Valley in several statistical categories, including hitting percentage, assists, kills and digs. In MVC contests, the UNI leads the league in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, assists, kills and service aces.

• 2009 marks the 12th straight year that the Panthers have won at least 20 matches, with UNI having claimed at least 20 victories in 22 of the past 24 seasons. Five of those seasons, the Panthers have won 30 or more matches, including three times in the last 10 years (1999, 2001 and 2002).

• Head Coach Bobbi Petersen posted her 250th career win when the Panthers earned a 3-0 win over Bradley on Oct. 31. Petersen, who is in her 10th season as the head coach for the Panthers, entered the season with the 10th-highest career winning percentage among active head coaches.

• Michelle Burow is hitting .386 in Missouri Valley Conference action to lead The Valley.

• Shannon Aschoff was tabbed the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week on Oct. 26. The senior averaged 3.44 kills per set in UNI’s wins over Missouri State and Wichita State the previous weekend.

• Bre Payton notched her fifth triple-double of the year on Nov. 14 when she tallied 11 kills, 36 assists and 16 digs in UNI’s 3-2 win at Wichita State. She had also notched triple-doubles against Missouri State, Texas A&M, Iowa State and Creighton.

• Ellie Blankenship leads the MVC and ranks third in the nation with 5.87 digs per set. The junior libero already owns the UNI record for digs in a season, digs in a career, and average digs per set.

• Krista DeGeest ranks No. 61 nationally and No. 4 in the MVC with 1.17 blocks per set.

• UNI has not been swept this season, posting a 17-0 record in three-set matches. The last team to sweep UNI was Missouri State, who topped UNI in straight sets in the championship match of the 2008 MVC Tournament.

• UNI ranks No. 11 in the nation in assists per set with 13.71. Bre Payton ranks No. 56 individually in that category, averaging 10.62.

• UNI’s 12 service aces against Bradley on Oct. 2 were the most since finishing with 14 against Kentucky in 2007.

• Shannon Aschoff recorded her 1,000th career kill in the Sept. 26 match against the Purple Aces.

• Krista DeGeest hit .682 with 17 kills in UNI’s wins at South Dakota State and against Bradley on Oct. 28 and 31.

• Amy Braun was named the Missouri Valley Conference freshman of the week on Sept. 28 after averaging 3.43 kills and 3.29 digs per set in the Panthers’ two wins the previous week.

• The Panthers enter the weekend ranked 14th in the nation for average attendance, averaging 2,077 fans per match. UNI’s record-breaking crowd of 6,126 against Iowa State is the 16th-largest volleyball crowd in the nation this season.

• Ellie Blankenship became the UNI career digs leader on Sept. 19 when she eclipsed Stephanie May’s mark of 1,570. Blankenship already owns the UNI record for digs in a season, set last year with 676. The junior enters the week as the national leader in digs per set, averaging 6.07.

• UNI set the volleyball attendance record on Sept. 2 when 6,126 fans saw the Panthers host in-state foe Iowa State. The 12th-ranked Cyclones edged the Panthers, 25-23, 25-23, 16-25 and 25-23.

• Ellie Blankenship was named the Missouri Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 8. Blankenship led UNI with 5.67 digs per set to help UNI finish 3-1 on the week. The junior led the Panthers with 32 digs against No. 12 Iowa State on Wednesday. She added 24 digs to her season total in the Panthers’ 3-2 win over Ohio on Saturday in the Blue Raider Bash. Blankenship has 150 digs on the season, averaging 6.0 per set. This is the second time Blankenship has won the award this season. She also was tabbed Defensive Player of the Week after averaging 6.5 digs per set in UNI’s opening weekend.

• UNI opened the season by posting a 2-1 record in the Texas A&M Invitational. UNI topped Virginia and Iona 3-0 on Friday, and dropped a 3-1 contest to the host Aggies on Saturday. Ellie Blankenship and Bre Payton were both named to the all-tournament team.

• Freshmen Amy Braun and Krista DeGeest made good impressions in their first action with the Panthers. In the Texas A&M Invitational, true freshman Braun was second on the team with 2.6 kills per set, and redshirt freshman DeGeest led the way with 15 blocks on the weekend.

• Sophomore setter Bre Payton led UNI in kills in the Texas A&M Invitational. She set a career high with nine against Virginia in the first match, then bested that with 11 in the match against Texas A&M.

• UNI was picked to finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference in the preseason poll. The league’s coaches also selected senior outside hitter Shannon Aschoff to the preseason all-conference team.

• Last year was UNI’s first-ever at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. In each of the previous 13 times the Panthers have advanced to postseason play, they won the Missouri Valley Conference postseason tournament, earning the league’s automatic bid. UNI lost to Missouri State in the conference tournament final in 2008, but was still one of three teams from The Valley to make the NCAA field, joining MSU and Wichita State.

• Since making its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1986, the Panthers have failed to make the NCAA tournament field just nine times. Three of those years UNI was selected to play in the now defunct National Invitational Volleyball Classic (NIVC), meaning that only six times in the last 23 years have the Panthers failed to make some sort of postseason play.

• Panther head coach Bobbi Petersen, starting her 10th season at the helm of the UNI volleyball program, has a 228-70 record during her tenure. Her .765 career winning percentage ranks her 10th among active Division I volleyball coaches. Petersen has claimed at least 20 wins in eight of her nine seasons as a head coach, while claiming five Missouri Valley Conference titles with six NCAA tournament appearances. She was the 2006 MVC Coach of the Year, and the 2002 AVCA National Coach of the Year.

• As a team, UNI ranked in the top 30 nationally in a pair of statistical categories. The Panthers were 17th in blocks per set (2.65) and 28th in digs per set (16.58). Individually, senior middle blocker Ashten Stelken was ninth in the nation in blocks per set at 1.45, while sophomore libero Ellie Blankenship ranked seventh nationally in digs per set at 5.59.

• Junior libero Ellie Blankenship, who set UNI records for digs and digs per set as a freshman, broke both those marks as a sophomore in 2008, ending with 676 digs and 5.59 digs per set. She ranked seventh nationally in digs per. Blankenship had a career-high 38 digs against Illinois State Oct. 24, and has reached double-digits in digs in 33 of 34 matches this year. She reached double-figures in digs in her first 18 matches this season, and had her string of 51 straight matches of at least 10 digs snapped against Bradley Oct. 11. That match against Bradley (when she got seven digs in the 3-0 sweep of the Braves) is the only time in two seasons that she has not gotten at least 10 digs. Blankenship’s 51-match streak stands as the 12th-best streak in NCAA history.