Know what you call a group of Panthers? A claw.
Know what we call our group of calls of the game for Panther Volleyball? Claw Calls of course.
Hear game highlights with Chris Kleinhans-Schulz and postgame thoughts from assistant coach Jason Allen.
The Panthers opened their MVC conference schedule with a home sweep of Southern Illinois and Missouri State. The Panthers were perfect on the weekend winning each match in three straight sets. UNI hits the road in the MVC for the first time this weekend at Valparaiso and UIC.
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Hey sports fans have you heard you can listen to your favorite podcast ad-free good news with Amazon music You have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts included with your prime membership to start listening Download the Amazon music app for free or go to Amazon comm slash ad-free sports That's Amazon comm slash ad-free sports to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads UNI 24 SIU 18 Franklin serves deep to makota short pass powers in the back zone sets forward to fallert And who else but Fowler to end the set it's off the Saluki's and out of bounds Fowler with eight kills in the opening frame and the Panthers take the first from the Saluki's 25 to 18 and in the process Fowler moves into 18th and Panther history and career kills Passing both Brie Weber and Kayla Hayne line Saluki's back to action following their final time out of the set Annabelle Solish is blocked Casey rewards and Olivia Chernaugo on the far side and it's 18 to 9 Panthers in the second and with that block Casey rewards breaks a tie with Asia Green rewards now sixth in Valley history for block assists and first in block assists within the 25-point rally scoring era So congratulations on the milestone another match point for the Panthers in the third empty 4 to 21 against the Saluki's you and I try to win its conference opener powers receives the serve gold it to Fowler who else but Fowler to end it and on an incredible night where Fowler Collects 18 kills while hitting above 400 the Panthers start off on the front foot in Missouri Valley Conference action winning against the now former MVC leader Southern Illinois in straight sets 25 to 21 is your score in the third as the Panthers take down the Saluki's three to nothing a Great start against a quality opponent you and I Axov SIU three to nothing post-game coverage underway and we're now joined by Panther assistant coach Jason Allen a Big theme throughout our broadcast and we even talked about it Pregame with head coach Bobby Peterson. This is a Saluki team that has made a lot of incredible comebacks Makes your earn every single point you get against them So given that how impressive was it for this Panther team after how rough things were last week to start off conference play with a sweep here tonight? Yeah, you never complain for a sweep. That's for sure It's hard to complain when you hit 327, but I don't think we played our best volleyball, you know I think we let them hang around a little bit in the third set, you know, we had some subs in there, but And then I thought it was a slow start to the first step So I definitely don't think we played our cleanest and best volleyball. I think we had seven hitting years in the first set And only hit, you know, just over 200 so we can be a lot better than that But all in all we'll take it. I thought Kira had a phenomenal match on cast struggle a little bit So we'll try to get her going a little bit better tomorrow, but and then everybody else Did their part of the middles did a decent job without Lily did a good job Cali good job coming in So we'll take it we'll take anything 3-0 in conference and Yeah, run with it and going back to the middles in particular you look Casey rewords errorless going five of three while also putting up a match high four blocks out blocking SIU as a team And then Caitlyn Selder seven kills are hitting 500 tying a career high Interiminations, but we talked so much about there've been these struggles in non-conference trying to get the middles involved So how big of a step was it to get them some action and for them to do as well as they did tonight? Yeah, really good. We need to be able to set them when we set Kira and Cass way way too much So we need to be able to have them Get set but we need to have them get set and be successful because we're not gonna sign them up. They're not gonna be successful so Really good. I thought that is something that we could exploit on SIU and I thought we did a good job of that after we figured Out kind of how are they going to defend it? I do think they paid attention to them a little bit more than I thought they would So we had to adjust what we were trying to do there a little bit But but all in all really good, you know very clean volleyball from those two for sure And now with a 1-0 start to conference play We'll try to make it 2-0 and also try to put a bow on this homestand against Missouri State The Bears are coming off being swept by the Drake Bulldogs tonight How different is the challenge of that Bears team coming in less than 24 hours after what you saw in the Saluki's this evening? Yeah, it's still it'd be interesting when we go look at Of the stats, you know, they have a freshman that has led them most of the year that hasn't played in a couple weeks So we'll see if she played at all But They're they're good. They're different. They do a bunch of different things. They move. It's kind of Valpo ish Move some pieces around a little bit. So we've got to really be on our toes and figure that out We're at the serve good. So we take that stuff out of it and make it pretty simple to defend So we'll see they're they're still trying to figure themselves out, especially with the injury To the freshman if she's not playing they're still just trying to figure out where to put people and have a really good middle that they played on the right side some so So we'll just kind of see what they're trying to do and that freshman he mentioned and I a Joseph did not play It would be curious pulling up the video to see if she even made the trip Yeah, and you know, they've had other injuries beside her as well in between that and what that Valpo s player you're talking about Feels like tomorrow could be a big kind of in-match adjustment kind of match Yeah, for sure. We're just kind of play our side of the volleyball and and play clean on our side That's what we've struggled with all all years to play clean We need to play clean and crisp on our side and then we'll deal with them when we can deal with them But if we're we take care of our side, we'll be all right 23 to 21 you and I late in the second The late J sims back to serve that means no libero on the floor sims the former Karuna Cavaliers same as Elizabeth Norris part of that North Dakota team that you and I defeated in the non-conference Sims with a good serve to Fowler tooth sets to Harbin opening left side and a kill into the campfire There was no block in her way and it found a gap back row in between sims in the middle and spray along the sideline It's now set point for UNI and instead of selling her it'll be Taren Rice in to serve making just her eighth appearance of the season Didn't play yesterday against Southern, Illinois. It had a great one-handed dig It's a part of one of her rallies just her second dig of the season Speaking of Michigan rice from Northville with the serve off the net over and down And Taren Rice with her first collegiate service ace wins the second for UNI Panthers 25 Bears 21 UNI leads two to nothing in the match Riley Orth the true freshman continues on serve from Missouri State in the middle of a must-win third Orth across to Fowler good one to Golden left side attack Hartman off the block still with the Bears dug by Finley Sprague set Sims off the block dug by Fowler. That's 1,000 for a career Panthers unable to convert on the attack as Golden said a little far forward for Ria or two hits into the net by Kira Fowler with the dig on the play That's 1,000 for her career 20th panther with at least a thousand digs 13th panther in the double-grand club and 10th panther in program history with at least 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs match point try number five for UNI Panthers 24 Bears 21 Fowler receives the serve along the sideline booth sets to the left and Hartman nearly finds the floor again more scrappy bear defense Attack over from Weinberg dug in the cross-court by powers Hartman again in this one kept up by Esslinger Papa sets left for Weinberg standing shot across diving dig Hartman Panthers in the back row for Fowler off the net and over dug by Papa Bumps set out a system Esslinger to Weinberg attack right at powers easy up left side Hartman off hands and down And the birthday girl finishes it for UNI It took five match points for the Panthers finally win the third 25 21 And it's back-to-back sweeps for the UNI Panthers to open Missouri Valley Conference action The sweep took a little bit longer than UNI would have liked in the end But still coming out of the first week in a Valley play 2-0 and back-to-back straight set victories always a decent way to start things out Panthers defeat the Bears 3-0 and we're a joint postgame by panther assistant coach Jason Allen when you look at the weekend as a whole Good to come away with a 2-0 start especially with the target on your back as a preseason favorite Some good aspects individually and team wise in this match But surely enough things to try to clean up be more consistent added some things to work out of the practice gym moving forward as well Yeah, for sure. I think Let's say we were fortunate to play these two teams and not you know a couple other ones this weekend We would have not come out to and over sure And today was a struggle and from the start like from warm up through the end of the match was just a struggle So receive was not good communication was not good And then just our connection overall. We just we weren't clean. We weren't sharp. We didn't have the energy and Whatever, so Yeah, we'll show some things on film and try to get it corrected and Yeah, we got a really tough test next weekend Kira Fowler with back-to-back 18 kill matches tying her personal best for three setters along the way efficient in both offensively hit over 400 yesterday hit over 300 today plus with her sixth and final dig of the match today She gets to 1,000 for her career. So you know here I know struggled a little bit with the passing but in other aspects of the game very productive And you know that you've leaned on her so much this season throughout her four-year career among other things joining that Thousand-day club and double grand club with today's achievement just highlighting how important she's been to this panther bally ball Program since joining in 2021. Yeah, she's some my knowledge. She's played every match I don't know that she's not played a match since she's arrived here so Yeah, and she's you know, she's been strict rotation since the day she arrived. So she's passed in every single rotation And then we set her a lot of balls this year I'm not sure. I think she had 18 No 18 or 19 swings in the first set Which is a whole lot and a whole lot more than I'd like to have to set her But but she was the one killing the wall So I guess you can't fault her setters for setting the people that are actually getting kills for us. I Don't know. I may only be asking this half seriously But do you look at her number of attacks and then just look at Julia Cardona from Evans? It could be double what she's taking right now. I guess yes for sure Yeah, that's that's pretty impressive. She took 80 something swings yesterday, so Yeah, so we got definitely have some things to clean up So receive is the most concerning that is our strength for sure and for that to kind of break apart and Yeah, they definitely they picked on us and broke us a little bit there So we got to get that get that resolved, but um You know two and oh start we'll take it and and see if we can get something on the road this coming We can wrap it up on fouler. She hasn't missed a match So it's 1 13 in a row for you and I to begin her career And now we shift the focus to the first Valley Road trip next week at Valparaiso at UIC You know how much do you already know about those teams? Obviously, we know the focus was on Missouri State today and Southern Illinois yesterday But have you seen enough whether non-conference or even just squeezing some in this week to get an idea of how this year's edition of The beacons and then the flames might be looking going into these matchups. Yeah, I think it's plug and play for Valpo. They just She just has a knack for for getting the kids that fit what she wants to do and they're gonna play incredibly hard They're gonna play crazy defense. They're gonna be a little undersized but you know, they're just gonna ball and and they're gonna make you beat them so we gotta play clean against those guys and UIC They're really good. They're gonna play really really fast You know, they got their their right side slash outside back from Egypt that was injured all last year She's back and has been starting. I think after the second weekend Every match. They're running a 6-2 They're gonna be tough. You know, they're they're neck and neck kind of with us and Drake For you know kills per said and hitting percentage and conference and that kind of stuff. So they are they will be a a really tough Really tough match. We're gonna have to be on our a game for sure for for both matches that weekend
