*Press release from UNI Athletics
For a third consecutive week, UNI redshirt freshman Maryn Bixby has been named the Missouri Valley Conference’s (MVC) Freshman of the Week for volleyball, as announced by the league office on Monday afternoon.
The selection comes for the Dike-New Hartford alum after she led the Panthers with nine total blocks on the weekend in home sweeps over Illinois State and Indiana State, helping UNI improve to 10-0 in league play.
Northern Iowa is currently in the midst of an 13-match winning streak, tied for the third-longest in Division I, while also having won 46 consecutive regular season matches against MVC opponents, the third-longest such streak in program history and the second-longest active streak in the nation.
UNI’s season leader with 78 total blocks on the year, Bixby also dished out 20 total kills against the Redbirds and Sycamores, including a career-high 14 terminations on Saturday against Indiana State. On the year, she averaged 1.89 kills and 1.08 blocks per frame in her first season on the court after redshirting in 2024.
Bixby’s selection is the seventh MVC weekly award of the season for the Panthers, who have seen Cassidy Hartman be named MVC Player of the Week twice this year and Jadyn Petersen the league’s defensive player of the week twice.
Bixby and the Panthers return to action on Thursday, Oct. 30 as UNI hosts Belmont at 6 p.m. CT inside the McLeod Center.
