La Crosse, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse volleyball team split a pair of matches Saturday afternoon at the Pioneer Invitational. UWL came from behind to defeat Augustana College 3-2 (25-19, 26-28, 14-25, 26-24, 15-6) but fell 3-1 (25-15, 20-25, 21-25, 22-25) to Carthage College in the Williams Field house at UW-Platteville.

Splitting a pair of matches moves the Eagles to 10-14 on the season.

In the first match against Augustana, the two teams traded points until it was tied 12-12. UWL scored eight of the next 11 points to take a 20-15 lead. Augustana would not get any closer than three (21-18) the rest of the way. Madison Weisensel led the Eagles with four kills in the first set.

The second set saw the Eagles take a 4-1 lead before Augustana took a 7-5 lead. After the score was tied at 10, neither team would take a lead bigger than two the rest of the set. Trailing 24-23, UWL got kills from Brianne Korducki and Gabrialla Johnson to take a 25-24 lead. Augustana tied it at 25 on a UWL hitting error but Korducki quickly gave the Eagles a 26-25 lead. However, Augustana would score the final three points to take the second set 28-26.

Augustana scored the first three points of the third set and took an early 11-4 lead. UWL would then score three straight but Augustana would extend their lead to 15-8. UWL would not get closer than five (15-10) as they lost set three 25-14.

The fourth set saw the Eagles fall behind 8-1 before slowly chipping away at their deficit. After the Vikings took a 22-18 lead, the Eagles scored three straight to trail 22-21. Augustana would then take a 24-22 lead however a kill by Kaity Coisman and Korducki along with two Viking hitting errors gave the Eagles the 26-24 win.

It was all UWL in the fifth set as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead. The Vikings would not get closer than four the rest of the set. The Eagles had eight kills in the fifth set including three from Weisensel.

For the match, UWL hit .245 (62-22-163) and was led by three players with double digits in kills. Johnson and Weisensel led the Eagles with 15 kills while Korducki finished with 14. Korducki also finished with a team high 19 digs while Megan Adams had 10 digs. Adam finished with a team high 31 assists.

In the match versus Carthage, UWL took the first set 25-15 as they hit .423 as a team with 14 kills and just three errors. Both teams would record 12 kills each in second set but it was the Firebirds taking the second set 25-20. UWL would record 11 kills and 11 hitting errors in the third set as they fell 25-21. The fourth set was similar to the third set for the Eagles as they struggled hitting .062 with 14 kills and 12 errors.

Individually, the Eagles were led by Korducki with 14 kills while Johnson had 11 and Gully had 9. Ella Luoma led the Eagles defense with 15 digs while Sydney Fedderly had 10. Adams finished with a team high 25 assists for the Eagles. As a team, UWL hit .173 with 51 kills, 29 errors and 127 total attacks.

UWL returns to action on Wednesday night (October 19) when they host UW-Whitewater at 7:00 pm.