The Panthers home opener did not go as planned as they were swept by Northern Illinois, the first time UNI has been swept at home since 2008. UNI committed 21 attacking errors on their way to a season-low .115 attacking percentage.

“We were not in the system a lot tonight,” said Bobbi Petersen UNI head coach. “I do think we had a couple of kids that were trying a little bit too hard to make a bad situation better and ended up making it worse.” 

The Panthers had lost three straight matches heading into the match against Northern Illinois.

“We didn’t want to be that team that talked about something and didn’t go out and put that in action and we definitely did that tonight,” Petersen said.

UNI struggled in the first set as they committed four attacking errors and found themselves down early 10-3. The Panthers would rally in the set but fall short 25-21.

The Panthers started off the second set up 4-0 but allowed NIU to tie it at 14-14. 

UNI could not close out the set up 24-23 and ending up falling 26-24.

Errors would plague the Panthers in the third and final set as they committed four attacking errors and two service errors in the set.

“I haven’t seen the team that I saw tonight all year,” Petersen said. “We never quite got over our nerves. We did a lot of things tonight that I haven’t seen, the miscommunication, the running into each other.”

Leigh Pudwill led the Panthers in attacking percentage with .280 as she recorded nine kills on 25 attack opportunities.

The Panthers ran into a similar situation last season as they started it off with a 3-5 record before rattling off seven straight wins.

“We proved it last year that we can fight through that,” Kinsey Caldwell said. “We are going to keep improving each match and each practice.”

UNI finds themselves with a 2-5 record heading into the Shamrock Invitational in South Bend, IN. The Panthers will start the invitational with a match against Northeastern on Friday at 3:30 p.m.