10-31-22

Amplifying Afghan voices

UNI features five women for “Our Stories: Women in Afghanistan” panel

MALLORY SCHMITZ News Editor

“Stories create commu nity,” Interim Director of Women’s and Gender Studies Danielle Dick McGeough addressed to a diverse crowd on the afternoon of Oct. 27. The crowd, made up of com munity members young and old, gathered in Lang Hall Auditorium for the panel, “Our Stories: Women in Afghanistan.”

The event was sponsored by a variety of departments on campus, but was largely orga nized by the UNI Women’s and Gender Studies program. McGeough moderated the panel with a variety of ques tions before allowing audience members to ask questions at the conclusion of the event.

On the stage at the front of the auditorium, five women sat behind a long table.

Hakima Afzaly, Hasina Jalal, Zamira Saidi, Zuhal Salim and Roquiya Sayeq traveled to Cedar Falls from differ ent parts of the U.S. to share their stories of growing up in Afghanistan and their insight on the current state of wom en’s rights in Afghanistan.

To begin, each woman shared about themselves and their memories of their upbringing in Afghanistan.

Salim was less than one year old when the Afghan Civil War broke out in 1992, and was five years old when the Taliban came to power in 1996. She spent the following five years of her life living under a regime characterized

by, as she said, “misogyny, torture, killing and overall violence.”

Under Taliban rule, girls were not allowed to attend school. Salim, like many of the other women on the panel, was fortunate in having par ents who prioritized educa tion.

She was homeschooled by her parents, and then was sent

to secret homeschooling with other community members. It wasn’t until after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the subse quent fall of the Taliban’s rule due to U.S. intervention that Salim was able to properly and legally attend school at the age of 11.

EN ESPAÑOL

Traducción: Perdón de la deuda préstamos estudiantiles

TREVOR MEYERS Escritor YESSENIA RODRÍGUEZ Traductora

El 24 de agosto, el Presidente Biden anunció que estaba pla neando en perdonar los présta mos de los estudiantes pero no tenía normas establecidas de quién es elegible para la benef icencia y cuando la aplicación se abriría.

El lunes 17 de octubre, la administración de Biden anunció que el formulario está disponible para que la gente lo pueda llenar para ver si son elegibles para la beneficencia de deudas estudiantiles.

¿Por qué se perdona las deudas de préstamos estudi antiles? Muchos se hacen esa pregunta y la respuesta que la administración de Biden ha dado es que hay demasiados jóvenes que se sienten agobia dos por la deuda tan grande que tienen cuando se gradúan de la universidad comparado a las generaciones anteriores.

Seerley Boulevard’s iconic flowering trees

KATE MURPHY Staff Writer

Cedar Falls Public Works and Parks made the decision to chop down the typical bloom ing crabapple trees on Seerley Boulevard and replace them

with new trees this October.

The crabapple trees were planted in the early 1960s. Seerley Boulevard has been known for the pink flowering trees for decades. The College Hill Partnership has been pro viding financial and planning

support to Cedar Falls in the decision to cut down the trees and replace them.

Brett Morris, a supervi sor at the Public Works and Parks, said the crab apple trees were at the end of their life. Crabapple trees typically live 40 to 60 years.

“Most of the trees have dead branches and don’t bloom as nicely, so we had to make a decision,” Morris said.

The decision was finalized when a local citizen, Mary Brammer, helped raise money to purchase new trees for the street and get them planted.

“We’ve decided to replant crabapple trees but a differ ent type instead,” Morris said. “We’re planting Royal Raindrop crabapple trees which will look very similar to the old ones.”

The trees were cut down, and new Royal Raindrop crabapple trees were planted during the last week of October. The new trees will be similar in appearance, but will be more resistant to disease.

According to Morris, the new variety of crabapple trees are much more resistant to dis ease that causes insects to feed on them. This became an issue with the previous species.

“The trees have been

sparse for a while now, so the city park staff is excited to see what the new trees will look like.” Morris said.

COURTESY/COLLEGE

The

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Since the Taliban’s resurge in power in August 2021, over one million girls in Afghanistan have been banned from going to school. Some brave women have taken to protesting. The women above protested outside of the Ministry of Education in Kabul in March of 2022, demanding that high schools be reopened for girls.

OPINION Guest Columnist Nkasa Bolumbu looks at the controversy of Netflix’s “Dahmer.”

SPORTS Panthers beat Southern Illinois on the road by one yard,

COURTESY/MALLORY SCHMITZ

Sayeq, now a data scien tist, also painted a vivid image of the very unique childhood experiences Afghan women have. “We would go to school or university, and on our way there would be an explosion, or there would be an attack,” she said.

Since their childhoods,

each of the women on the panel have taken advantage of their opportunities for edu cation and have become suc cessful activists, scholars and entrepreneurs.

Jalal earned her master’s degree in women’s and gen der studies from UNI in 2021. After graduating, she said she had already booked her flight to return to Afghanistan when

the U.S. accelerated the with drawal of its troops during the summer of 2021.

“That was when I made one of the most difficult decisions of my life, which was to con tinue to live here and not go back home when I could not see my family for two years because of COVID, of course, and because of the embassy being closed,” she said.

Following the U.S. with drawal, the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021. Since then, these women and the rest of the world have watched millions of Afghan women lose their rights and liberties in society.

Under Taliban rule, women are once again banned from getting an education. As Jalal pointed out, it has been over

400 days since girls have been allowed to go to school in Afghanistan.

Salim described further societal changes under Taliban rule. The Taliban abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which advocated for women’s rights and provided support for women undergoing domestic violence.

COURTESY/WIKIPEDIA

SEERLEY TREES

from

Many college students and families live on Seerley Boulevard and look forward to their bloom every spring.

The College Hill Partnership looks forward to bringing back the springtime look it has been known for.

For a number of weeks, the stumps were all that remained of the old trees before they were removed by the city staff at the public works. Morris said multiple College Hill residents helped raise fund ing to make the replanting on Seerley Boulevard possible.

“I’ve talked with some folks living around the area and I know how much they’ve missed the blooming in the spring on Seerley,” Morris said. “We look forward to planting the new trees and seeing how they turn out.”

The history of the College Hill area is important to many residents in Cedar Falls. Before the crabapple trees were planted on Seerley Boulevard, a trolley system used to run through the road.

The trolley system began in the 1900s and was removed in 1941. The trolley system was replaced with bus transpor tation in the area and twenty

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years later, the cinders from the old rail line were removed to plant the original crabapple trees.

“I’m not from the Cedar Falls area, but 10-15 years ago, I remember just how beautiful those trees were to look at.” Morris said.

The Royal Raindrop cra bapple trees were planted at the end of October.

“I don’t know much about the history of the trees, but I do know how beautiful they bloomed and have been for the past 50 years or so,” Morris said. “That’s why we didn’t want to change the look of Seerley and kept the same type of trees.”

Cedar Falls Public Works began fundraising for the trees in September in hopes of removing the trees as quickly as possible so they could have the new trees start growing for spring 2023.

“In the last couple years we haven’t seen the beau tiful bloom of Seerley, but the College Hill area should expect to see the new crabap ple trees bloom next coming spring.” Morris said.

PRÉSTAMOS

Extendida de página 1

De acuerdo con College Board, en los últimos 40 años, las instituciones de cuatro años privadas y públicas para la educación superior han tenido el triple de costos después de tomar en cuenta el ajuste de la inflación.

Hace tiempo, el Pell Grant cubría hasta el 80% del cobro de una institución pública de cuatro años para muchas famil ias de clase media de bajos ingresos. Hoy, el Pell Grant no llega a rendir un tercio del costo.

Con base al Departamento de Educación, el promedio de estudiantes graduados es de alrededor de $25 000 en deuda.

UNI también es parte de esto, ya que tiene a muchos estudiantes con problemas de deudas como muchas otras uni versidades en el país. El Reporte Anual de Ayuda Financiera de 2021 de UNI muestra que alre dedor de 67,5% de graduados se gradúan con deuda y 32,5% de estudiantes sin deuda. El promedio de endeudamiento estudiantil de UNI es $24 593. Cuando se incluye a los estudi antes de transferencia, el pro medio baja a $22 966.

En el año académico de 2020-2021, unos 4 826 estudi

antes sacaron un préstamo fed eral y privado con un promedio de $7 713 prestado. Alrededor de 8 412 estudiantes del año académico de 2020-2021 reci bieron algún tipo de asistencia financiera de la universidad. Un poco más de 67% de grad uados tienen deuda y definitiv amente hay muchos estudiantes en la universidad que se van a graduar pronto que están curio sos cómo esto les va a afectar.

Después de hablar con Jack Murphy, un consejero financie ro de UNI, muchos estudiantes de UNI están interesados en un alivio de deudas estudiantiles.

“Tuvimos un gran aumento en las llamadas en las semanas que siguieron al anuncio del plan de perdonar los présta mos de los estudiantes. Muchos preguntaron si esto iba a ser

Roquiya Sayeq currently works as a data scientist for EA Langenfeld after receiving her master’s degree in science and analytics from the University of Chicago.

aplicable para ellos y otras pre guntas cómo iba a funcionar”, comentó Murphy. Murphy tam bién dio información del reporte de UNI de financieras de 2021. La gran pregunta que está en la mente de todos además si son elegibles o no para la condonación es cuánto van a recibir. De acuerdo con el sitio de web Student Aid, se puede ser elegible para las condona ciones de préstamos para con donación hasta $20 000 si se recibió el Pell Grant. Si alguien no ha recibido el Pell Grant por el gobierno, solo se es elegible para $10 000 en condonaciones de préstamos. Todo depende de si cumples con los requisitos económicos.

TO READ IT IN ENGLISH visit northerniowan.com

EDITORIAL

MALLORY

DIAMOND

SOPHIE

MAYRA

EMMA

ADVISORS

ANELIA DIMITROVA anelia.dimitrova@uni.edu

CHRIS MARTIN christopher.martin@uni.edu

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All material is © 2022 by the Northern Iowan and may not be used without permission.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be less than 300 words in length and are subject to editing. Not all submissions will be printed. Send submissions to northern-iowan@uni.edu.

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TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

El Presidente Biden se esfuerza para proporcionar alivio a los estudiantes con deudas estudiantiles.

COURTESY/LINKEDIN

COURTESY/TWITTER

Zuhal Salim is a former diplomat to the Permanent Mission of Afghanistan to the United Nations. She currently works as a job coach focused on helping new immigrants find jobs in the U.S.

COURTESY/LINKEDIN

Zamira Saidi founded the Afghan Women Educational and Empowerment Services Organization (AWEESO). She is currently a legal fellow with Fifth Third Bank.

Hasina Jalal received her master’s degree from UNI in women’s and gender studies. She was recently selcted as a recipient of UNI’s GOLD & Bold alumni award.

COURTESY/HAKIMA AFZALY

Hakima Afzaly is a current Fullbright Scholar at UNI completing a master’s degree in women’s and gender studies.

OPINION

Netflix: Villains over victims

How

NKASA BOLUMBU Opinion Columnist

“Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” is the title for the second most popular show on Netflix at the moment. The first episode dropped in September 2022, and has taken many people aback as the true horror of his crimes are depict ed.

According to its Google description, the show is told “largely from the perspectives of the victims.” The show is incredibly well-filmed, with a sinister, unsettling tone that fol lows Dahmer’s life. However, I believe the show has made an empty promise and greatly dropped the ball when accu rately portraying the victims’ and their families’ lived experi ences.

Evan Peters is a very tal ented actor who plays Jeffrey Dahmer. He is also known for playing Quicksilver from the “X-Men” film series, notable characters in “American Horror Story” and the acclaimed LGBTQ+ show “Pose.” These shows and the Dahmer series were produced and created by Ryan Murphy.

Recently, many serial killer documentaries have casted attractive actors to play the killers. First was Ross Lynch as Dahmer in “My Friend Dahmer,” Zac Efron as Ted Bundy and now Evan Peters.

Peters stated in his Netflix interview that was posted on Youtube that “they [Peters and Murphy] would never make this about Dahmer,” even though “Jeffrey Dahmer’s Story” is in the name. He mentions Murphy

expressed to him that Dahmer was “an interesting character due to these almost remorseful feelings towards his victims.”

I believe that this is evident in the very humane portrayal of his aloof, aggressive and doc ile on-screen personality. Peters does an excellent job express ing Dahmer’s “why does every one always leave me” line of abandonment issues, feeling like a failure and lack of direc tion in life.

This makes it easy for the show to set up the very bro ken American justice system and Dahmer’s privilege as a white man when it came to his convincing of police that he was seeing a distressed bloody 14-year-old Konerak Sinathasomphone. This is emphasized by the heroine, Glenda Cleveland – who in reality did not live in the same building as Dahmer – when

she calls out the police for not doing anything though she’s called them multiple times.

In the show, detectives called him out for purpose fully targeting victims in a mostly black area that’s both over and under-policed. They claimed he was aware of that and made it easier to get away with his crimes. Dahmer claims that race was never a factor in choosing his victims and that he just thought they were beau tiful.

According to Preston K. Davis, the soldier that Dahmer drugged and sexually assault ed, this isn’t true. Davis shared in the blog “Protect Our Defenders” that Dahmer was racist from the start. Dahmer would brag (a trait which shows when he jokingly talks about his crimes during meals in prison) that he was better than everybody else, an idea

taught to him by his father.

Ever since the assault, Davis spiraled – multiple domestic disputes led to divorce and loss of contact with his sons, an early military career ending under honorable conditions and bitterness as a result of what had happened to him and what he lost years later. He ends his piece by talking about the inju ries he endured from the assault resulting in surgery – and he still blames himself for what Jefferey did. Why didn’t Davis get an episode to show this himself?

In his death scene, Dahmer says, “I drugged them so they wouldn’t feel pain” to his killer before he’s brutally beaten to death. It was a poetic contrast to the silent off-screen deaths of his victims. Dahmer got what was coming, but it definitely made him more human than a monster. A bit contradictory

isn’t it?

Where was the victims’ per spective over the two episodes that documented Dahmer’s life? They weren’t present for Dahmer’s birth, his moth er waiting at the bustop while she was pregnant, school, the animal dissections or fighting between his parents.

According to the IMDb page for the series, most of the victims appear in less than nine episodes. If the show is shown largely about them, why don’t they get more episodes? Dahmer could appear in all 10 for the last moments they were seen alive with him at the end of an episode. There were 17 victims in total, why don’t they each have an episode?

For example, the actors for the Sinathasomphone family – excluding Konerak Sinathasomphone – had a total of five episodes each. Yet Konerak, the slain 14-year-old, didn’t receive an episode cen tered around his life – what he wanted to do, and what he did before Dahmer showed up.

Tracy Edwards, one of the survivors to appear in the first episode, was present in three. After what happened to him, Edwards has had a very rough life and has been guilty of many crimes, including the sexual battery of a 14-year-old girl. Currently, Insider has a video of Edwards in court for charges involving a botched robbery and a death. His whereabouts are unknown.

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Actor Evan Peters plays Jeffery Dahmer, a notorious serial killer from Milwaukee, Wis. In this scene, Dahmer is sentenced and taken to the Columbia Correctional Facility. He was sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment. He then got another term for a homicide that he committed in Ohio in 1978.

TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

In a report from the Hollywood Reporter, Evan Peters was terrified to take on the role. It was even mentioned that this took months of preparation including diaect work and research.

Disclaimer: The following opinion articles featured do not reflect the opinion of the Northern Iowan newspaper or staff as a whole.

In all fairness though, Dahmer only gets two epi sodes to tell his whole life story before his first mur der. Guess it could’ve been longer.

Tony Hughes is the only victim who gets an epi sode with his birth, life and death. He was character ized as a hopeless romantic. When he meets Dahmer, it’s over a long course of time. The show shows a romance doomed from the start. We see Hughes dance with a shirtless enticing Dahmer, they hook up and hang out on multiple occasions. When Hughes says he has to go to work one night, Dahmer worries he won’t come back so he final ly snaps. Moments later, Hughes’s lifeless, almost nude body is shown splayed on the bed. The show forgot in that episode that Dahmer didn’t want a relationship with a functioning consent ing human. He wanted to make a zombie.

Think for a moment: how can any family member be ok with seeing the charac ter based on their loved one dead on screen? The show doesn’t hold back, but I don’t think it truly honors the fact that they’re show ing the bodies of real peo ple, not just props.

Shirley Hughes, 85, Tony’s mother, has spo ken out about the show in The Guardian. She says, “I don’t see how they can use our names and put stuff out like that out there.”

Rita Isabell, Errol Lindsey’s sister said to Insider News that “I don’t need to watch the show

I lived it.” She felt like they should’ve reached out but she knows they didn’t because they’re just “trying to get paid.” She ends by sharing that “he [her broth er] knows I’m still here for him.” I find it ironic that the show displays the family’s fight for financial retribution but will not be sharing any proceeds for showing their sons’ suffer ing at Dahmer’s hands.

Her cousin, Eric Perry, agrees and posted on Twitter that “the show has been re-traumatizing to our families.”

Tatiana Banks, Lindsey’s daughter and Isabell’s niece, 31 years old, has not

been able to sleep due to the show’s presence on social media. She shares the same sentiments that Netflix should’ve reached out since “people are still grieving.” She says that the show reopened a closed door in her life since she had to put together bits and pieces of what happened to her father over time. She was born after his death and never got to know him. Now she has to deal with online dis cussions about her father as well as victim-blaming on social media.

Even Dahmer’s father, Lionel Dahmer, is consider ing suing the show.

The core of the series

relies on graphic sensation alism and dramatizations of everything – including the filmed victim impact statements so that they can use a lot of creative liber ties. Why have actors look just like the actual speakers for the victim impact state ments when they could’ve inserted the clips? Why focus the camera for so long on Dahmer in the court room instead of putting us in Isabell’s shoes?

And why the hell was Dahmer shirtless while drinking a pint of blood? This further perpetuates the romanticizing of serial kill ers in the true crime com munity.

Though permission isn’t required, if the series was intended to truly honor the victims, an act of good faith, why didn’t they ask for families’ blessings? Is it better to ask for forgiveness after the fact that many of their loved ones found out about the series like the rest of us? Honestly, that’s the reddest a flag could get. As far as the media knows, none of the money being made from the show will end up in the surviving fam ily members’ hands.

If the series is truly supposed to not be mostly about Dahmer, then they failed. Now, there are about 11.3 billion views for the Dahmer tag on TikTok. A surge of costumes based on Dahmer – for kids and adults. A very lustful com munity of people, mainly women, expressing their desire for Dahmer and a large defense of Dahmer apologists and victim blam ers on social media.

Let’s not forget that this is all for a man who dese crated people’s dead bod ies by sexually abusing and eating them.

With the exception of Tony Hughes and the few survivors, the show failed to truly show the victims’ per spectives because it focused mostly on their deaths and not the legacy of their lives.

On Oct. 28, via the Hollywood Reporter, Insider Edition shared Murphy’s statement from a Los Angeles Event regard ing the families of the vic tims. “We spent a long time writing it and working on it. During three and half years my team reached out to 20 of the victims’ surviving family members but got no response.”

As a replacement, the Taliban established the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which is responsible for imposing dress code and essentially acting as the morality police.

Dress codes have become much more strict. As the women on the panel said, the changes are not rooted in culture and are instead being used to control women. Women are now required to wear blue, all-covering bur qas in public that have only small holes women can see

through.

“That’s how they want women to see their world, just a few inches,” Salim said.

Despite newer challenges under the Taliban’s regained rule, centuries-old conflicts still define the lives of Afghans.

Afzaly largely grew up in Pakistan as her parents were refugees fleeing the perse cution of Hazaras. Hazara is a minority ethnic group in Afghanistan that makes up 20 percent of the population. They are often targeted for their distinct facial features and their practice of Shiite Islam, while the majority of

Afghans practice the Sunni tradition.

“Currently, a genocide is happening toward the Hazara community. We are being targeted in schools, maternity hospitals, in mosques, in wedding halls and in education centers just to name a few,” she said.

She recounted that about a month ago, a group of 50 Hazara students was killed in an attack while they were preparing for college entrance exams. Many of them were girls.

Despite the tragedy and trauma that has marked the lives of many Afghan women, the women on the

panel expressed a hope for the future that can only be achieved through continued conversation about these experiences.

“Education is a necessity, not a luxury, and that is why it is a moral obligation of all of us to empathize with women of Afghanistan and keep amplifying their voic es,” Afzaly said.

Saidi added, “Coming here and seeing all of these faces and your interest to be here and hear our stories, it was worth it.”

In terms of what the audience could do to help the situation, the women emphasized the importance

of showing empathy for Afghans, listening to Afghan women instead of the media and educating oneself on the realities of the situation.

They also encouraged supporting Afghan immi grants financially through organizations and scholar ships.

Lastly, Jalal pushed the audience to pay particular attention to the foreign poli cies of elected officials, and to use their vote according ly.

“At the end of the day, human life is human life,” she said.

AFGHANISTAN continued

VILLAINS continued

PEXELS

Netflix’s newest take on Dahmer has outraged the many grieving families of the killer’s victims.

Panthers hang on, win by 1 yard

DREW HILL Sports Writer

On the road in Carbondale, Ill., UNI faced the No. 20 ranked Southern Illinois Salukis. In a 37-36 game that featured 1,001 yards of total offense, five lead changes and a Hail Mary at the end that wound up at the 1-yard line, UNI held on for the win.

This was a colossal game for UNI in regards to FCS playoff hopes. After an 0-3 start to the season, UNI had won four of five games coming into this game. However, they had not had a signature win over a team with a winning record. Southern Illinois came into the game 5-3. They lost in the previous week to South Dakota, but had won five in a row before that, including an upset over Power Five squad Northwestern back on Sept. 17. They came into the game ranked at No. 20 in the FCS STATS Perform Poll and No. 24 in the FCS Coaches poll.

This game was full of offense from the beginning. Southern Illinois got the opening kickoff and drove all the way down to the UNI 2-yard line. However, the UNI defense stopped them there, and the Salukis were forced to kick a field goal, taking a 3-0 lead. UNI responded with a touchdown drive that ended with a Theo Day pass to Sergio Morancy to give the Panthers a 7-3 lead. Southern Illinois took just over a min ute to respond with a 48-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-7.

The rest of the half was all UNI, as they scored on all four

of their first half drives before a brief kneel to end the half. In addition to the Morancy catch, Day found Desmond Hutson, Deion McShane and Sam Schnee for touchdowns. Southern Illinois did score a touchdown between the Hutson and McShane catches, but UNI rode a 28-17 lead into halftime.

Momentum was on UNI’s side, but that changed as disaster struck on UNI’s first play of the second half. Day was sacked and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Southern Illinois at the UNI 14-yard line. Southern Illinois took just two plays to score. UNI stopped a two-point con version attempt, and so the score was 28-23. UNI went on a lengthy drive down to the 8-yard line, but were stopped short, and so Matthew Cook nailed a short field goal to extend the Panther lead to 31-23. Cook’s field goal gave him 64 for his career, which ties him with former Panther and MVFC record holder Billy Hallgren for the most career field goals.

Southern Illinois drove back down the field again. Helped along by a 45-yard pass, they scored another touchdown. Once again, they attempted a two-point conver sion to tie the game, but UNI stopped them again, and the Panthers held on to a twopoint 31-29 lead. UNI took their next drive to the Southern Illinois 40-yard line, but after a sack knocked them back to the 43, UNI was forced to punt for the first time in the game.

Southern Illinois proceeded to score a touchdown for the third-straight drive, giving

them their first lead since the first half, 36-31.

UNI, having only scored three points in the second half after scoring 28 in the first, took 5:23 off the clock on their next drive. Day found Hutson for his fifth passing touch down of the game to regain the lead. UNI went for two to try to take a three-point lead, but failed to convert the two-point conversion, leaving them with a 37-36 lead.

Southern Illinois got the ball with a little under six min utes left, and took over five minutes off the clock as they positioned themselves for a potential game-winning score. UNI stopped them at the 23-yard line, and so Southern Illinois attempted a 41-yard field goal that would have given them a two-point lead. They missed, and so UNI had a chance to end the game with 47 seconds left. UNI ran the ball to try to drain the clock, but Southern Illinois stopped them on third down and called timeouts after each play. UNI was forced to punt on fourth down with 35 seconds left, giving Southern Illinois one more chance to score. After a few short passes, Southern Illinois only had four seconds left from the UNI 48-yard line. UNI intercepted the pass, but an offsides penalty gave the Salukis one last play with no time on the clock from the UNI 43-yard line. They threw the ball to Jay Jones at the 1-yard line, but UNI tackled him short to hold on for the 37-36 win.

UNI had 461 yards in the game to Southern Illinois’ 540 yards. Day accounted for 330 passing yards and threw for

all five of UNI’s touchdowns to four different receivers.

The UNI ground game picked up 131 yards and were led by Vance McShane with 75 yards and Dom Williams with 72 yards. Schnee had eight receptions for 96 yards, and Deion McShane was not far behind with 6 catches for 84

yards. Southern Illinois’ quar terback, Nic Baker, threw for a whopping 485 yards and three touchdowns, but UNI held the Salukis run game to 55 yards.

UNI’s next game is against No. 1 South Dakota State in the UNI-Dome on Saturday, Nov. 5. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.

UNI competes at MVC Championship

CADEN SHEA Sports Writer

As the sun was still ris ing in Terre Haute, Ind., the Panthers cross coun try runners were getting ready for one of their big gest races of the year. The Missouri Valley Conference Championship took place this Friday at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course with many of the athletes running some of their best times of the year. The women’s team managed to score 165 points to get 7th place out of the

12 teams that ran. The men got 9th place out of eleven other teams with a total of 251 points.

Emma Hoins ran the best race for the UNI women’s team with a time of 22:19 getting her 21st out of the hundreds of other runners that took part in this race. Kate Crawford was only 10 seconds behind her with a time of 22:29 which gave her 26th place in the cham pionships. Crawford man aged to knock 12 seconds off of her time from last year’s championships in which she also placed 26th.

Mia Rampton placed 41st with a time of 23:04, just in front of Paige Holub who was behind her by 0.8 sec onds and got 42nd place. Isabelle Schaffer placed 43rd, Sophia Jungling got 50th, Sydney Schaffer got 51st and Ella Popenhagen got 55th. These times and performances helped ensure their seventh place finish as a team.

The men also performed well as Brady Griebel led the team with a 25:45 time to receive 40th place. Griebel ran nearly a min ute better than his perfor

mance in last year’s com petition where he got 51st place. Caleb Shumaker ran a 25:53 which placed him at 46th among the other runners. 54th place was also held by the Panthers as Jayden Dickson ran a 26:21. Payton Marrs was four sec onds behind Dickson to get 56th place. Drake Hanson achieved 60th place, Karson Kleve got 78th, David Holesinger II got 80th and Kon Dut finished 82nd.

In the women’s com petition, Bradley took the team championship with a total of just 22 points. The

Braves had five runners fin ish in the top 10, including individual champion Nicola Jansen, running a time of 20:22. For the men, Bradley also took the team crown, finishing with 42 points, four points ahead of Drake. Drake’s Isaac Basten was the individual champion with a time of 24:29.

The Panthers will con tinue their running on Nov. 11 when they travel to Columbia, Mo. for the NCAA Regional meet at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.

COURTESY/UNI ATHLETICS Theo Day (12) had a career day for the Panthers, passing for 330 yards and five touchdowns without an interception.

Perfect Panthers move to 13-0 in MVC

ADAM JOHNSON Sports Writer

UNI volleyball had two home games over the week end, the first being a match up against Murray State on Friday, Oct. 28, and the sec ond being against Belmont on Saturday, Oct. 29. UNI went on to win both of these matches, and continue their unbeaten streak in confer ence play.

First on the slate was Murray State. There was a lot of back and forth action in this one, but the Racers did get up by as many as five points at 16-11. UNI tried to make their way back at them, being only down by one at 22-21, but Murray

State would hold on to take the first set, 25-21.

The next set saw a similar recipe as the first, but this time it was UNI who had the lead at 16-11. The rest of the way through, UNI kept that lead anywhere from five to seven points, never giving Murray State a chance to get back in the set. The Panthers took set two, 25-18.

The match went into the third set all tied up at 1-1. This set was full of runs that usually saw Murray State playing catchup with the Panthers. Seemingly every time that UNI would pick up a lead, the Racers would claw their way back. UNI finally looked to put them away in the set when they

extended their lead to 24-18. The Racers, however, were not going away so easily. They tallied off four in a row to put it at 24-22, but that was all they could muster. UNI won the set, 25-22.

UNI decided not to mess around in the fourth set, as they dominated the whole way through. UNI was ahead 10-7 in the early going, and it looked like this was going to be another close one. However, the Panthers put things in another gear, and dominated the rest of the set, going on a 15-5 run to finish off the Racers. UNI won the set 25-12, and the match, 3-1.

Next up for the Panthers was Belmont. Some momen tum must have carried over from the Murray State match, because UNI came out the gates quickly, jump ing to an early 7-1 lead. The Panthers early lead would prove too much for Belmont, as they could never get any thing going, UNI took set one, 25-17.

Following the first set, it would be hard to believe that UNI could play any better, but they did just that in set two. They came out the gates just as quickly, but instead of maintaining the lead, they grew on it throughout the set. They were up 15-5 towards

the middle of the set, and would end up winning in dominant fashion, 25-13.

The Panthers were in search of a clean sweep of Belmont going into the third set. However, Belmont came forward with some more fight in the third set, as in the early going, UNI was only up 9-8. That is when the fun stopped for Belmont, as the Panthers went on an impressive 9-0 run to extend the lead to 18-8. UNI won the third set 25-13, complet

ing the 3-0 sweep against Belmont.

Following both of these victories, UNI has extend ed their unbeaten conference record to 13-0. With only five matches left in confer ence play, it will be some thing to watch down the stretch. The Panthers will play next against Illinois State on Friday, Nov. 4 in Normal, Ill., before traveling to Peoria, Ill. for a meeting with Bradley on Saturday, Nov. 5.

UNI wins in overtime at MVC Tournament

BEN LAHART Sports Writer

The UNI women’s soc cer team traveled to Chicago for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Their first match took place Thursday, Oct. 27, against Belmont. This was UNI’s second straight game against the Bruins coming off a 0-0 tie on Oct. 23. It took an overtime period for the Panthers to score and ulti mately win 1-0.

The first period was quite uneventful even with UNI producing three shots to Belmont’s one. None of the four total shots were on goal. Lauren Heinsch accounted for two of UNI’s three shots while Allison Whitaker had the other.

The second period pro vided a bit more action than the first. UNI started off quick with a shot on goal from Ashley Harrington in the 46th minute. This shot

was saved from scoring. Quickly following was a shot on goal from Belmont that was saved by UNI. After two more UNI shots, the 50th minute produced anoth er shot on goal from UNI forward Sophia Meier but was saved by Bruins’ goal keeper Sarah Doyle. Belmont followed with three shots, one of which was on goal but was saved by UNI goal keeper Caitlin Richards. In the 67th minute Harrington kicked another shot on goal that did not score.

To close out the peri od, Belmont had a shot on goal in the 84th minute that was saved from scoring by Richards. UNI had a final chance for a regulation win in the 89th minute with a shot on goal from Heinsch. The match was tied 0-0 after 90 minutes.

This was UNI’s first experience with overtime this year as there is no over time in the regular season

anymore after a rule change this past offseason. In con ference tournament matches, overtime is played in two 10 minute periods, then a penal ty-kick shootout afterwards if the match is still tied. UNI scored their first goal in the 97th minute off the leg of Sophia Balistreri to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.

Belmont kept the match entertaining with a shot on

goal in the 106th minute of play that was saved by Richards. UNI then totaled six shots, three of which were on goal, in the next five minutes, but none scored. Belmont’s final chance came in the last minute with a shot on goal that failed to score.

UNI led both teams in shots, eight, shots on goal, 18, and goals with one. They also totaled six saves, five

from Richards. Heinsch’s team high seven shots were just one shy of her season high and her three shots on goal tied her season high. Balisteri’s 97th minute score was her fourth of the season.

Next up for the Panthers will be a meeting with UIC. The Panthers and Flames met in Chicago earlier this sea son, and played to a scoreless tie.

COURTESY/UNI ATHLETICS

With seven digs on Saturday, Baylee Petersen went over 1000 for her career. Baylee joins her mom and sister, Bobbi and Sydney, in this club.

COURTESY/UNI ATHLETICS

Inga Rotto (13) had a very efficient weekend. Rotto had 21 kills across the two matches without an attack error.

COURTESY/UNI ATHLETICS

Sophia Balistreri (19) scored the only goal of the day during the first overtime period, securing UNI’s 1-0 win over Belmont at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.