Menomonie, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin La Crosse volleyball team won a key Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) match on Wednesday night when they defeated UW-Stout 3-1.
THE BASICS
Final Score: UW-La Crosse defeats UW-Stout 25-21, 19-25, 25-16, 26-24
Location: Johnson Fieldhouse, Menomonie, Wis.
Records: UWL 20-11 (2-5 WIAC), UW-Stout 17-9, (2-5 WIAC)
20 Win Season: With the Eagles win tonight, UWL records their first 20 win season since finishing 20-11 in 2021. It is also the first time the Eagles have won multiple WIAC matches since winning four in 2021.
WIAC Tournament: UWL will wait to see if they qualify for the WIAC tournament November 11th. The top six teams in the WIAC qualify for the tournament with the top two seeds getting a first round bye. WIAC action concludes on Friday night and the tournament field will be announced at the conclusion of all games Friday night.
Grace Nommensen
HOW DID IT HAPPEN
- With the first set tied 9-9, UWL scored four straight to force a UW-Stout timeout as they took a 13-9 lead. The Blue Devils would battle back to tie it up at 16-16 before the Eagles scored eight of the next 10 points to lead 24-18. Megan Lund recorded two service aces and Taylor Larson added another one to help spark the run. UW-Stout would cut their deficit to three (24-21) but that would be as close as they would get as Maddy Wilson recorded a kill to give the Eagles a 25-21 win in set one.
- UW-Stout took an early 10-6 lead in the second set before Eagles scored four straight including two kills by Grace Nommensen to tie the set at 10. Trailing 14-12, UWL got two kills from Bella Kottke and a service ace from Wilson to take a 15-14 lead. With the set tied at 16, UW-Stout scored five of the next six points to take a 21-17 lead. UWL would not get any closer than three (22-19) as UW-Stout took the second set 25-19.
- Both teams would trade points early in the third set until UWL used a 7-1 run to turn a 5-5 tie into a 12-6 lead. A Megan Jasperson service ace would give the Eagles its largest lead of the set at 19-9. UW-Stout would cut their deficit to 21-15 but the Eagles would score four of the final five points to win the third set 25-16.
- Trailing 11-8 in the fourth set, UWL scores gets three service aces from Taylor Larson to spark a 5-0 run to give UWL a 13-11 lead. UWL would extend their lead to 19-14 before UW-Stout slowly chipped away and pulled tie it 21-21. Back-to-back errors by the Blue Devils would give the Eagles a 24-22 lead. A Rio Beaulieu kill and a UWL hitting error would tie the set up at 24-24. The Eagles would then get a kill by Kailyn Kurth followed by Wilson to give UWL a 26-24 win in set four.
FROM THE BOX SCORE
- Nommensen led the Eagles offense with 13 kills while Kayla Sexton finisehd with 11.
- Bella Kottke finished with eight kills and no hitting errors for a .471 hitting percentage.
- UWL finished with 13 service aces as a team including four from Megan Lund and three by Larson.
- The offense ran through Lund and Kurth as they finished with 19 and 17 assists, respectively.
- Larson led the defense with 26 digs while Sexton finished with 15 and Kurth had nine.
