The Panthers’ season came to an end on Saturday as they fell to the Illinois State Redbirds 3-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship match. UNI advanced to the championship with a 3-1 win over Wichita State on Friday; despite dropping the first set 25-21.

UNI came out with as good of a start as they could have wanted in the championship match, jumping out to a 12-2 lead. The Redbirds committed four errors during the Panthers’ early run. ISU shortened the gap by scoring eight of the next 11 points but never dug themselves out of the hole as UNI took the set 25-17. Kayla Haneline recorded the final kill in the set and recorded a team-high 12 kills in the match.

The roles were switched in the second set as the Redbirds took an early 11-5 lead, forcing a UNI timeout. The Panthers rattled off three straight points to cut ISU’s lead to just two. After a Redbird timeout, ISU scored four straight and never looked back on their way to a 25-17 win.

The Panthers rebounded coming out of the break, scoring five of six points to give themselves a 12-7 lead midway through the third set. Another scoring run from the Redbirds forced two UNI timeouts on their way to scoring six straight and taking a 14-12 lead.  A Leigh Pudwill kill knotted the set at 14-14 but ISU scored the next point and held the lead for the rest of the way, winning the set 25-20.

It was not the start the Panthers wanted in the fourth set as they found themselves down 8-3 early. UNI Head Coach Bobbi Petersen used two timeouts early in an attempt to stop the ISU onslaught, but to no avail. The Redbirds went on to win the set 25-13 and the match 4-1, making them MVC Tournament Champions and securing an automatic bid to the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament. 

First-team All-MVC honoree Eryca Hingtgen finished with nine kills in her final game as a Panther. UNI ended the season with an overall record of 21-11.