After winning seven of their last eight contests, the Panther volleyball team took their show on the road for another conference matchup against Loyola-Chicago on Monday, Oct. 21.

The Panthers took down their MVC foes 3-1, advancing to 14-9 on the season.

“We talk a lot about this crazy conference race and being able to protect our home court, and with that comes road battles as well,” head coach Bobbi Petersen said.

After the Cats won the first set 25-16, the Ramblers responded by taking the second set 25-23. UNI bounced back in the third, winning again by the score of 25-16. 

The Purple and Gold scored seven straight points in the last set, and were able to hold off the Ramblers in the fourth, 25-21.

The win moves the Panther women to 8-1 in conference play, one game ahead of Loyola.

Karlie Taylor led the way for Northern Iowa with 20 kills for the game, followed by true freshman Kaylissa Arndorfer and junior Kate Busswitz with nine kills each.

Senior Rachel Koop assisted on 46 points for the Panthers and Abbi Staack led the team with 26 digs on the night.

“We have some things that we want to start changing offensively, but we probably won’t start working on those until after the first round of conference play is done,” Petersen said. 

“For now, we want to completely focus on skill work. It’s been a long time since we’ve taken individual attacking and individual defending, so we’re looking forward to taking a few days this week to focus on those specifically.”

The Panthers will play their next two games on the road against Indiana State on Friday, Oct. 25 and Evansville on Saturday, Oct. 26.

UNI will return home to the McLeod Center on Friday, Nov. 1 to face off against Southern Illinois.