The UNI volleyball team played a pair of important matches this weekend against Wichita State and Missouri State. Going into the two games, the Panthers were third in the Missouri Valley, while MSU and WSU were tied for first.

UNI did as well as could be expected, completing a sweep of WSU on the season after sweeping them on Friday by a set score of 26-24, 25-18 and 27-25.

The second half of the weekend was not as successful. UNI lost to the Bears 25-19, 19-25, 21-25 and 21-25. This put an end to UNI’s eight game winning streak.

UNI started the match against the Wichita State Shockers by falling behind early 9-3. A 6-0 run by UNI, however, put the Panthers up until WSU gained the lead at 23-22.

UNI put them away by scoring two in a row after a tie at 24. The Panthers proceeded to roll the Shockers in the second, UNI never trailing in that set despite four ties early on.

WSU was on their way to extending the match as they led UNI the entire set until a tie at 23. To reach the set win UNI had to battle back from a 13-20 deficit, to which they used a huge 6-1 run to narrow the gap.

Senior Amie Held led the match with 14 kills. She also added a match best three aces against one error. Sophomore Bri Weber was a dominate force at the net with seven blocks, two of them were solo. Sophomore Heather Hook recorded the lone double-double of the match, 33 assists and 10 digs.

The first set against MSU saw an even match up, one in which UNI pulled away late. The proceeding three sets were all MSU.

UNI never saw an in-set lead and the only time there was a tie was at the 0-0 start of each set. Held shined once more. She recorded 21 kills, 14 digs and two more aces.

Weber pulled a double-double as well: 12 kills and 15 digs. This is the second time this season UNI has lost to MSU. As UNI’s winning streak came to an end, the Bears streak itself grew to nine in a row.

This 1-1 split keeps UNI in third place in the Valley tied with Southern Illinois. WSU is in second place; while MSU maintained the number one spot, but now alone.

UNI is half a game behind the Shockers and are 1.5 games behind the Bears. With five games left until the Valley Tournament, UNI’s schedule is fairly doable with few chances of failure.

UNI has one game this weekend against Drake University. There is still time for the Panthers to finish no worse than third in the regular season.