JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - UNF continues its 11-match stretch of contests outside of Jacksonville to start the season when the Ospreys take their first trip to Iowa for three games this weekend. North Florida goes up against Northern Iowa and Iowa this Friday, while concluding the Hawkeye Invitational against South Dakota State Saturday. 

Live stats will be offered for all three matches, although only the match against Iowa will be live streamed. 

MATCH NOTES
Series History
UNI: North Florida and Northern Iowa are meeting for just the second time in program history ... the two teams haven't met since August of 2008 ... the Panthers won that meeting in three frames ... North Florida and Northern Iowa faced off in Boca Raton ... the last time UNF faced a Missouri Valley Conference opponent was Aug. 31 against Indiana State. 
IOWA: UNF and Iowa are meeting for the first time in series history ... the last time UNF faced a Big Ten opponent was Aug. 24, 2012 against No. 23 Michigan at Missouri.
SDSU: UNF and SDSU are meeting for the third time ... the two teams have split the all-time series ... UNF and South Dakota State have only met in neutral site locations ... the Ospreys and Jackrabbits last met Sept. 14, 2018, with SDSU winning, 3-1 ... UNF took the first-ever meeting, 3-1, Sept. 6, 2008.

Scouting Report
UNI: UNI is 5-5 ... the Panthers are riding a hot spurt, winning the last four matches to recover from a 1-4 start ... the Panthers took down in-state rival, Iowa State, 3-1 during midweek volleyball ... UNI has also picked up victories against CSU Bakersfield, Western Michigan, Southeast Missouri State and Grand Canyon ... UNI came into the season ranked 6th in the MVC Preseason poll ... the UNI staff is comprised of three members that have been with the team for over 20 years.
IOWA: Iowa is 3-5 in its first year under the tutelage of head coach Jim Barnes ... the Hawkeyes are aiming to rebound from a tough 2021 season in which Iowa went 6-24 and 4-16 in Big Ten play ... Iowa features a lot of new faces after having brought in nine newcomers and seven transfers ... sophomore outside hitter Michelle Urquhart put up double-doubles against Gonzaga and Florida ... Iowa welcomed a transfer from the Sunshine State in Lily Tessier ... Tessier played at Florida State from 2018-21, posting nearly 2,000 assists for the Seminoles ... teams are having success against Iowa on the block, having notched 2.81 blocks/set in contests against the Hawkeyes.
SDSU: South Dakota State is 6-3 the first few weeks of the season ... the Jackrabbits are 4-1 in neutral site competition ... SDSU posted a solid 2021 season, going 19-12 and 10-8 in league play ... Crystal Burk has been a steady asset for the SDSU offense, posting at least 10 kills in all of the team's matches this season ... she also has seven double-doubles ... South Dakota State was tabbed at the fifth slot in the preseason conference poll ... Raegen Reily quarterbacks the offense with 9.45 assists/set at the setter position ... she has played every single set, along with Burk and Katie Van Egdom.

FIRST TRIP TO IOWA
UNF is making its first trip to Iowa in program history. The Ospreys haven't made many trips to the Midwest during their program's history. UNF competed in Missouri in 2012 and made a trip to Duluth, Minnesota prior to its DI days.

MCKNIGHT's 1st DOUBLE-DOUBLE
Kailey McKnight went for a career-high 15 digs to go with 12 kills against Troy Sept. 9. It was her first career double-double.

POWER FIVE CONTESTS
UNF has played a tough schedule to open its season, having already played four matches against Power Five teams, including Florida, Virginia, Kansas State and Syracuse.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN
With Friday morning's match against UNI, the Ospreys will have played nine-straight matches away from home, its longest stretch of road contests to start the year in at least UNF's Division I era.

SOLI CONTINUES TO CLIMB
Solimar Cestero is 11 kills from entering UNF's top 10 career kills ranking. She has 1,073 kills over 120 matches played. Her 430 sets played is 12th all-time, making her 76 sets shy of breaking former teammate Gabby O'Connell's mark of 505 sets.

BOYD ON THE BLOCK
Maddie Boyd is nearing 200-career blocks, needing just four more to reach the milestone. She'd be just the 11th to reach that milestone in UNF's DI history.