A record McLeod Center crowd of over 6,600 saw another classic volleyball match between the UNI Panthers and the Iowa State Cyclones. This time, the Cyclones came away with a 3-2 win. Set scores were 25-13, 25-20, 21-25, 21-25, and 15-9.
Cyclone head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch says this was a tough match to win. “This is a very tough place to play and we knew UNI got off to a rocky start the first weekend, but that has no impact when they come home to play in their own gym,” Johnson Lynch says.
Lynch says the strong first game set the tone for the evening for Iowa State as she thought they served well and UNI had a lot of trouble getting a handle on the ball. Freshman Ciara Capezio led the Cyclones with a match-high 22 kills, Victoria Hurtt added 17. Lynch says even though the Cyclones were able to get the win, there is room for improvement.
Panther head coach Bobbi Petersen says it was a tough match but she saw improvement in their play over last weekend’s matches in Utah. “I definitely saw growth in a lot of areas, I think the first thing is we came out in game one and we were definitely letting the emotion of the first home game and the crowd affect us in not a positive way. But we were able to turn that around,” Petersen says.
The Panthers came out on fire for game three, and Petersen says that level of play carried into the next set. She says they’ve given away the close games so far this year and it was good to see them come back and make things close.
Overall, Petersen says the Panthers had to play like they “had nothing to lose.” She says they gave the best game they had and it was not good enough to win, but it was the attitude she wants to see. Shelby Kintzel and Erica Hingtgen led the Panthers with 14 kills a piece.
(Reporting by Scott Fenzloff, KCNZ, Cedar Falls)