With the 3-0 sweep of Indiana State this past weekend, UNI volleyball head coach Bobbi Petersen has completed the trek to 500 wins in her journey to becoming UNI’s second winningest volleyball coach of all time.

Petersen credited much of her success to her former coach and the winningest coach in UNI volleyball history, Iradge Ahrabi-Fard.

“I wouldn’t have this opportunity without Irage,” Petersen said. 

“He’s the one that recruited me as a student-athlete and was a huge mentor for me during that time. I owe so much to who I am to him.  I learned a lot of different things under him. He gave me so many amazing opportunities to be able to pursue a coaching career because to be honest, that’s not the route I wanted to go down. But his encouragement led me to think about this career.”

Petersen’s journey at UNI started as a standout player for the Panthers from 1986-1989, recording three all-conference nominations. Along with her conference record of 40 kills in a match, she also led the league her senior year in individual hitting percentage, ace average and kill average.

Her accolades did not stop there as she was later named to the conference all-centennial team in 2006.

Following her graduation, Peteresen spent some time away from UNI before returning as an assistant coach. She ultimately spent six years learning under Ahrabi-Fard before taking over the head coaching duties in 2001.

In her historic tenure at UNI, Petersen has posted impressive numbers. She has won the conference championship as a player and a coach, being the first person to do so in UNI history.

She has also guided the Panthers to 14 NCAA tournament appearances, eight regular season conference titles and nine conference championships. 

Additionally, Petersen has put UNI volleyball on the map with wins against some of the nations most prestigious volleyball schools, including wins over Florida, UCLA, Pepperdine, Creighton and USC.

Off the court, Petersen has led 34 of her players to be named first-team conference scholar athletes.

“Volleyball is a small piece of who these women are,” Petersen noted.

“They must make other things a priority in their life other than volleyball and we must be examples of that.  We are driven in our job, but we have families and we have other priorities that we can also stop. There has to be balance in your life.”

Following the Panthers’ most recent win over Evansville, Petersen is now just two wins away from tying her mentor’s record of 503 wins and three games away from becoming the new winningest head coach in UNI history.