After a slow start to a season featuring ranked teams and a difficult travel schedule, the University of Northern Iowa volleyball team has found their groove.

The Panthers extended their winning streak that started Sept. 7 with a win over Saint Louis University and a doubleheader sweep against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The weekend flurry of games started Friday in St. Louis where the Panthers took on the Billikens.

The first four matches were decided on extra serves. UNI took games two and three by scores of 25-19 and 33-31, making the match 2-1 in favor of the Panthers.

The Billikens fought back to win the fourth game, which forced a fifth game between the two teams.

The fifth game went back and forth to start off, with both teams tied at 14. A kill by UNI’s Eryca Hingtgen followed by a block by Kinsey Caldwell and Shelby Kintzel helped the Panthers pull away, winning the match 3-2.

Less than a day later the girls were back in Cedar Falls and at it again in the McLeod Center.

The short rest was not an issue for the Panthers as they won both matches of the doubleheader against Green Bay, only losing one set throughout the entire day. They improved their season’s overall record to 6-4.

“Things are finally starting to click,” said Caldwell about the team’s progress and current winning streak.

After the weekend the Panthers moved their winning streak to five straight matches as they head into conference play.

“We’ve played hard competition. Our practice schedule is hard, our travel is hard and we’re a young team, but the girls have handled it well and worked really hard,” said head coach Bobbi Petersen.

Petersen and the players both agree that the stressful start has been good for the team.

“Facing a lot of good teams has really helped out because we know we have a lot of good teams yet to face left on our schedule,” said Hingtgen, who led the Panthers with 10 kills in the second match against Green Bay.

Petersen hopes to keep the momentum going and keep on preparing the team to strive to be better on the court.

“We still have some growing to do as a team, we have a lot we want to get better at,” said Petersen.

The girls hit the road again Sept. 17 as they look to advance their winning streak against the Northern Illinois University Huskies.