After hosting a home tournament this past weekend, the NMU volleyball team will travel to Iowa to face similar opponents this weekend at the Peacock Open.

The Wildcats will start the weekend at 12:15 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 against the St. Cloud State University Huskies at Verizon Center at Upper Iowa University in Fayette, Iowa.

The other teams competing in the Peacock Open include the Michigan Tech Huskies, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Hardrockers and Minot State University Beavers.

The Huskies have started out their season 3-1.

Last season St. Cloud finished with an overall record of 7-21.

The Wildcats will also play the Upper Iowa University Peacocks at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11 at Verizon Center.

The Peacocks have started their season with a 3-1 record, after attending the Wildcat Open in Marquette this past weekend.

The only match the ’Cats have lost this season was to the Peacocks during the Wildcat Open, sitting with a 3-1 record after the tournament.

Senior libero Alex Berger said the loss to UIU will motivate NMU this weekend.

“Every loss you have brings more into the next game,” Berger said. “We look at what we did well at, what we didn’t succeed at 100 percent, and take what they succeeded at and we push to be better than we were last weekend.”

Senior left setter Lisa Studnicka led the team with 19 kills, while sophomore middle hitter Kayla Chosa trailed Studnicka with 14 kills.

Head coach Dominic Yoder is getting NMU ready for their difficult schedule in Fayette.

“We are playing a really tough schedule, and not only with Upper Iowa,” Yoder said. “St. Cloud is also a good team. Even though Minot State is not well-known, they’re still a solid team, and so is the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. All four of those teams are really tough, and it’s going to be a challenging weekend for us.”

NMU will continue against the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers at noon on Saturday, Sept. 12 in the Peacock Open. The Hardrockers started off their season this weekend with a 2-2 record.

The ’Cats will finish their weekendat 6 p.m Saturday against the Minot State University Beavers at Verizon Center. The Beavers have started this fall with a 2-1 record.

Sophomore middle hitter Madison Whitehead was proud of the way the ’Cats played this weekend.

“As a team I think we did really well defensively,” Whitehead said. “I think our middles did great this weekend, they were really strong and scored a lot of points for us.”

At the Wildcat Open, NMU got a victory over Lake Superior State University on Thursday, Sept. 3.

The ’Cats had hitting percentage of .441 and swept the matches 25-17, 25-11 and 25-16.  The Wildcats moved on to play Cedarville University on Friday night winning their first match 25-21, before losing 25-20. The ’Cats were able to come back to win their final two matches 25-16 and 25-19.

The Wildcats played two matches on Saturday, starting with their loss against Upper Iowa University. They finished the open with a win over Fort Hays State, losing the first two sets 25-23 and 25-20, but had a come back later in the game with three consecutive wins of 25-14,25-21 and 15-8.

Berger is confident NMU can be even better as they travel to Iowa. “We’re going back and evaluating how we play as a team,” Berger said. “[We’re] finding common trends of things we need to work on, as well as things we did well that we can push, and push, and push.

“Overall our goal is to be a level higher each and every time we play.”