Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Stevens Point, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse volleyball team came from behind to defeat Wheaton College (Ill.) 3-2 (20-25, 23-25, 25-16, 25-20, 15-12) before falling to Illinois Wesleyan University 3-0 (21-25, 11-25, 23-25) Friday night at Berg Gymnasium on the campus of UW-Stevens Point. Splitting the pair of non-conference matches move the Eagles to 11-16 on the season.

In the first set, Wheaton scored the first three points and took an early 11-7 lead. UWL then scored four straight points including three kills (Brianne Korducki, Kaity Coisman, and Madison Gully) followed by a service ace from Ella Luoma. UWL then took its first lead of the set (16-15) on a kill by Gabrialla Johnson. Wheaton scored scored five straight to take the lead back and never trailed again in the first set. 

With the scored tied 8-8 in the second set, Wheaton scored five of the next six points to lead 13-9. The Eagles battled back to tie the score at 14 before the Thunder scored five straight to lead 19-14. The Eagles took its first lead of the second set at 21-20 on a Thunder attacking error. They would extend their lead to 23-21 to force a Thunder timeout. The Thunder would then score the final four points to win the second set 25-23. 

UWL scored 11 of the first 12 points in the third set and never trailed. The Thunder would pull to within 14-11 but that would be as close as they would get as the Eagles took the second set 25-16. As a team, the Eagles combined for 16 kills while hitting .200.

The Eagles fell behind 5-1 in the fourth set before they battled back to tie the game at 11-11. The two teams traded points until the score was tied at 17 when the Eagles scored four of the next five points to lead 21-18. The Thunder cut their deficit to 21-19 but the Eagles scored four of the final five points to force a fifth set. Korducki, Adams, Johnson recorded kills for three of the final four points for the Eagles. 

In the fifth set, Wheaton took a 5-3 lead before the Eagles took a 7-6 lead. Three straight kills by the Eagles (Paige Geiser, Sydny Fedderly and Coisman) gave the Eagles a 10-9 lead. The Thunder then scored three straight of their own to take a 12-10 lead. Three kills from Johnson and two hitting errors by the Thunder would give the Eagles their final five points to win the final set 15-12. 

As a team, the Eagles hit .142 (66-40-183) and were led by Johnson who finished with 20 kills while Madison Weisensel added 13 kills and Korducki contributed 12. Adams led the Eagles with 39 assists and 26 digs. Also in double figures in digs was Fedderly with 12, Korducki with 11 and Luoma with 10. 

Wheaton finished the match hitting .094 (43-27-170) and was led by Caroline Capps with nine kills.

In the second match of the day, Illinois Wesleyan took an early 4-3 lead before the Eagles took an 8-7 lead on a service ace by Louma. The Titans recorded three straight kills and forced an Eagle hitting error to lead 11-8. IWU would extend their lead to 16-13 before UWL got two kills from Anna Rossner and a Titan hitting error to tie the game. The Titans then scored six of the next eight points and would not trail again as they took the first set 25-21.

IWU jumped out to a 10-3 lead  and would not trail in the second set. UWL would cut their deficit to 13-7 but would not get any closer. UWL would hit .000 (7-7-22) in the second set while IWU hit .375 (8-2-16). 

The third set saw the Eagles fall behind 6-2; however, they would battle back to tie the game at 8 a piece. After a Korducki kill tied the game at 10, IWU got two kills and two service aces to take a 14-10 lead. The Titans would extend their lead to 18-13 before the Eagles would slowly chip away at their deficit and took the lead at 23-22 on a Korducki kill. However, the Titans would get a kill by Dana Kiszkowski and Lily Summers plus a UWL setting error to record the final three points and win the set 25-23.

For the match, UWL hit .149 (32-17-101) and were led by Johnson with eight kills while Korducki and Weisensel each had six. Adams finished the match with 25 assists while Korducki and Summer Schwenn each had 10 digs.

IWU hit .295 (39-11-95) and were led by Taylor French with nine kills.

UWL will return to action on Tuesday, October 25 when they host Saint Mary's University (Minn.) at 7:00 pm.