CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – It was a battle of two undefeated teams in Missouri Valley Conference play as the Drake volleyball team went on the road to take on UNI at the McLeod Center on Monday night. In the end, the Panthers got the better of the Bulldogs and handed Drake its first loss in conference play with a 3-0 victory.
 
The first set started out with the Bulldogs and the Panthers trading points to a 6-6 draw, but then the momentum quickly changed in favor of UNI. The Panthers immediately broke the stalemate and proceeded to go on an 8-0 run to make the score 14-6. Drake tried to dig itself out of the hole, but another scoring streak from UNI increased the Panther lead to 23-10. The Bulldogs went on a 3-0 rally late, with kills from Ashlynn Kuhn and Megan Witte, but eventually UNI claimed the set, 25-14.
 
Drake found itself facing another deficit in the early stages of the second set as the Panthers came out and claimed the first five points. As the action moved along, the Bulldogs slowly chipped away at the Panther lead taking advantage of some errors and drew within two points at 18-16. That was as close as Drake would get, however, and UNI went on two in the second set, 25-19.
 
Similar to the first set, Drake hung with UNI early on in the third with the two squads coming together at 9-9. Once again, the Panthers broke the tie by going on an extended run, this time 9-0, to put the Bulldogs behind. Drake rattled off a couple of points in the final stages with kills from Macy Daufeldt and Witte, but the comeback attempt was denied, and UNI won the set, 25-14 and the match, 3-0.
 
"Tonight was a good test for us and even though the outcome wasn't the greatest, it gives us a good measure of where we are at," Drake head coach Darrin McBroom said. "There are areas that we need to clean up and improve upon for sure. We'll be looking forward to getting it back together and getting back into a rhythm this weekend."
 
Daufeldt and Witte each recorded six kills for the most on the Bulldogs, while Kuhn was next in line with five. Addison Beagle tallied 11 assists in the match to round out the offensive performances. On the defensive side, Bliss Beck had 1.5 total blocks and Jada Wills picked up 13 digs. With her 13 digs, Wills is now tied for the most career digs in program history at 2,423 with Alana Wittenburg.
 
Drake will stay on the road this weekend as it first heads to Peoria, Illinois for a matchup with Bradley (Oct.18) and then will stay in Illinois for contest with Illinois State the following day (Oct. 19).