fayette, iowa - concordia university volleyball opened the northern sun schedule on tuesday evening with a road match against upper iowa university. The golden bears took the peacocks in three sets, 25-16, 25-17, 25-13, to improve their season record to 12-0 overall. Upper iowa is now 9-5 on the season and 0-1 in the league. The teams have a rematch this friday evening at 7:00 pm at the gangelhoff center. box score

concordia was paced by outside hitter megan carlson in the sweeping win, as the sophomore transfer put up her eighth double-double of the season with 14 kills and 11 digs. Carlson hit .417 in the match, with the golden bears combining for a cumulative .358 hitting average. sadie kessler pitched in another 11 kills for her team, hitting .579 without an error in the league opener.

the golden bears stretched out leads around the midpoints of each set by finding ways to string multiple points together with every chance at the serving line. They outpaced the peacocks by about two points to one in every set after they hit their tenth point.

upper iowa did not tally more than nine kills in any set of the match, while concordia averaged 15 kills per set in the win. Cu hit .358 on the evening, while upper iowa managed only a .136 hitting average. The golden bears fared well at the net with six blocks in the match, making things even more difficult for peacock hitters. The home team did not have a player reach double figures for kills or digs.

in addition to carlson and kessler's double-figure performances, junior emily palkert put up a 10-kill night. Both kessler and palkert had three blocks in the match (1s, 2a). mary slinger was the leading defender in the match with 12 digs. maggie mcnamara had 37 assists, 12 more than upper iowa's total kill count.

concordia returns home to the gangelhoff center for a set of nsic matches this weekend, hosting the peacocks on friday evening before looking at a 3:00 pm matinee match against winona state on saturday.