Stevens Point, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse volleyball team earned a 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 27-25) win at UW-Stevens Point Friday night in Berg Gym in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) finale for both teams. UWL improves to 16-11 overall and 4-3 in the WIAC while UW-Stevens Point drops to 17-14 overall and 4-3 in the conference.
UWL never trailed in the opening set Friday, racing out to a 7-3 lead after a
Marisa Johnson ace. The Pointers cut the lead to 7-4, but could get no closer as the Eagles went on a 9-1 run to lead 16-5.
UW-Stevens Point scored the first point in the second set, but it would be its only lead of the set. UWL scored seven of the next eight points to lead 7-2. The Pointers cut it to 11-7 on a April Gehl kill before the Eagles used a 5-2 run to lead 16-9. UW-Stevens Point got no closer than six the rest of the way.
The third set was tied 18 times and didn't feature a two-point lead until UW-Stevens Point went ahead, 18-16 on a Gehl kill. UWL came back to take a 21-19 lead on a
Emma Lawrence kill. The Pointers trailed 24-22, but scored three straight points to lead 25-24. The Eagles responded with the final three points, including a Lawrence kill to tie the match at 25-25 and a Johnson kill for the winning point.
Johnson led UWL with 13 kills while hitting .440 (13-2-25) and Lawrence finished with 10 kills for the Eagles.
Kathryn Maas and
Rhiana Pochman each had seven kills.Â
Abbey Fox recorded 37 assists as the Eagles hit .254 (46-16-118).
Julia Van Fleet had 17 digs for UWL with Johnson finishing with 11. The Eagles finished with 4.0 team blocks.
Gehl led UW-Stevens Point with six kills with Maddie Lawson and Tara Emme each finishing with five. Ciara Gilbert recorded 17 assists with the Pointers hitting .049 (26-21-103) overall.
Emma Peterson led UW-Stevens Point with 12 digs. The Pointers finished with 5.0 team blocks.
UWL returns to action Saturday, October 27 in its regular-season finale facing Carthage College (Wis.) at noon in Stevens Point.
