CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – Indiana State volleyball rattled off three-straight set victories on Sunday evening to earn the first-ever victory over Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls in a five-set thriller.
 
With the 3-2 [15-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-16, 15-5] victory on Sunday, the Sycamores improve to 4-6 (4-5 MVC) on the year and snap a nine-game losing skid to Northern Iowa while UNI falls to 5-7 (5-4 MVC). The win over the Panthers also marked the first time since Sept. 9, 2014 that Indiana State won a match it trailed 2-0 on the road, with the last instance occurring at IUPUI.
 
In addition to earning the first win at UNI in Sycamore history, Melina Tedrow became the 11th member of the 1,000 Dig Club at Indiana State with her fifth dig of the match in the second set. The junior libero ended her evening with 18 digs, pushing her career total to 1,013, the 10th-best number in Sycamore history.
 
It was a slow start to the match for the Blue & White, falling behind 2-0 after hitting just .053 and .125 between the frames while the opposition hit .275 and .250 to go along with 33 kills in two sets.
 
The third set marked a change in momentum as the Sycamores opened on an 8-3 run, getting two kills from Taylor Shelton, to begin to claw their way back into the match. The Panthers managed to pull within three at 11-8, but that's as close at it would get with the ISU offense tallying 12 kills on an impressive .333 hitting percentage.
 
Offensive struggles continued into set four for the purple and gold, with UNI hitting just .152 with 11 kills while Indiana State continued to press on the offensive side of the net with 11 kills, but also a dominant six service aces.
 
Indiana State left nothing up to chance in the fifth and final set, using two kills from Shelton and one from Kaitlyn Hamilton to help open on a 7-1 run before pulling away for a 15-5 set win. The Trees put down nine kills to just one error, hitting .364 while holding UNI to .000.
 
Offensively three Sycamores tallied double-digit kills, led by Mallory Keller with 11. Shelton contributed 10 kills to go along with 15 digs and two aces, giving her a double-double on the evening while Karinna Gall also added 10 kills. As a team, ISU ended the match with 49 kills while hitting .205. The Trees also ended with eight service aces.
 
In the passing game, both setters earned double-doubles for the Trees. Chloe Mason led the way with 19 assists and 11 digs while senior Mary Hannah Lewis contributed 15 assists and 11 digs.
 
On the defensive side of the net, Tedrow served as the anchor with her team-high 18 digs. The Sycamores as a team got down for 72 digs. Freshman Kaitlyn Hamilton protected the net well, earning a team-best five block assists to go along with her six kills on the evening. Freshman Jamie Brown, in her first career start, added four block assists while Madeline Williams contributed three. The Blue & White ended with seven total blocks on the evening.
 
Indiana State now boasts wins over the Missouri Valley Conference preseason top-three teams in the league (UNI, Illinois State, Loyola).
 
Both squads will be back in action for match two of the series tomorrow evening at 6 p.m. ET in the McLeod Center. The match will be streamed live on ESPN3.
 
For the latest information on the Sycamore Volleyball team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.