Box Score La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse volleyball team earned a 3-1 (25-16, 25-16, 12-25, 23-25, 15-13) victory over 13th-ranked UW-Stevens Point Friday night in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles improve to 13-7 and 3-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Pointers drop to 18-6 overall and 1-3 in the conference. UW-Stevens Point is ranked 13th on this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top-25 Poll.
UWL snapped a three-match losing streak with Friday's victory and ended a eight-match losing streak to UW-Stevens Point.
"After the match we talked how we showed confidence and mental toughness in being able to come back and win the fifth set," said UWL head coach
Lily Hallock. UWL is now 4-1 in five set matches this year. "We're well conditioned both physically and mentally for the fifth set. Our sports performance program has done a great job of getting the team physically conditioned and I think the trust the athletes have in each other knowing they can count on each other in the fifth set is a factor."
UWL rebounded after a 3-0 loss at 19th-ranked UW-Oshkosh Wednesday. "Our team looked very different tonight than how we looked Wednesday," said Hallock. "We didn't play strong Wednesday. We really had a great practice yesterday and the team made a conscious decision that they were going to play different volleyball tonight."
The Eagles raced out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set Friday before the Pointers came back to cut the advantage to 7-4. UWL then went on 11-4 run to lead 18-8. UW-Stevens Point could get no closer than six points the rest of the way.
UW-Stevens Point led 7-4 in the second set before UWL raced back scoring 12 of the next 15 points to lead 16-10 after a
Leah Putzier ace. UWL scored seven straight points with Putzier serving. The Pointers scored eight of the first 11 points in third set. The Eagles could get no closer than three points the rest of the set.
UWL led 18-13 in the fourth set on a Putzier kill before UW-Stevens Point forced a 20-20 tie with a Kelly Cefalu kill. The set was tied 23-23 before Cefalu and Maddie Courter gave the Pointers the victory with back-to-back kills.
The fifth set was tied 5-5 when the Eagles scored four straight points to take a 9-5 advantage. The Pointers later cut it to 12-10 on an Eagles' hitting error, but UWL came back to lead 14-11 on a Putzier kill. After a UWL service error and block assists from Courter and Gabby Thomas cut the lead to 14-13 for UW-Stevens Point,
Jill Entinger ended the match with a kill for UWL.
Jill Entinger led UWL with 16 kills Friday, hitting .433 (16-3-30) while Putzier finished with 13 kills,
Stephanie Henk with 12 and
Ashley Entinger with 11.
Jaclyn Barrette recorded 52 assists as the Eagles hit .234 (60-24-154).
"Jaclyn does an amazing job of making people around her better," said Hallock. "She instills confidence in her teammates and is a great setter for us."Danica Johnson led the Eagles with 17 digs with Barrette finishing with 13. UWL had 9.0 team blocks with
Jill Entinger finishing with six block assists.
Bella Nelson led UW-Stevens Point with 17 kills while Thomas finished with 13 and Cefalu with 11. Brittany Laffin registered 48 assists as the Pointers hit .181 (56-25-171).
Hannah Picel recorded 16 digs and Marie Krengel 10. UW-Stevens Point had 7.0 team blocks.
UWL returns to action Friday, October 16 hosting the UWL Invitational. The Eagles face Bethel University (Minn.) at 5 p.m. and Central College (Iowa) at 7:30 p.m.
