Box Score
MADISON, Wis. - No one ever walks away from an Edgewood College volleyball match at the Edgedome complaining of a lack of excitement. In fact, head coach Paul Schlomer might prefer his Eagles provide something other than a five-set match. However, as long as the final result is a victory, Coach Schlomer and Eagle fans will always leave happy. Tuesday night in the Northern Athletics Conference opener for both teams, the Edgewood College rallied from a 2-0 deficit to claim a thrilling 3-2 victory over Wisconsin Lutheran College.
Two of the five sets went extra points, including the decisive fifth set, claimed by the Eagles 17-15. The final set alone had seven ties, four lead changes and each team had two match points before it ended. The Eagles led 9-7 when the Warriors made their move. Wisconsin Lutheran received two kills by Jenna Neuberger (5-4, 0-1 NAC) and surged ahead 14-12 forcing an Eagles timeout.
Facing two match points, the Eagles benefitted from a Warrior serving error, and then went to Mallory Palmer and Brittany Bylsma on back-to-back returns. Both answered with kills to give the Eagles a 15-14 lead their first match point. A hitting error by Bylsma tied the match again at 15, but Palmer answered with her career-high 26th kill of the match. Palmer then served the final point as the Warriors' Erika Laete hit long over the end line to clinch the victory.
The rally capped an amazing comeback by Edgewood College (2-7, 1-0 NAC). The Eagles dropped the first two sets 25-23 and 29-27 as Wisconsin Lutheran racked up 31 kills against just six errors. The second set was particularly tough for the Eagles as they rallied from a 23-17 deficit to extend the set, only to lose when Wisconsin Lutheran's Rachel Johnson and Jenna Neuberger teamed up on a block to end the set.
However, the Eagles clearly seemed to gain momentum from their rally in the second set and it carried over to the third. In the third set, the Eagle turned to Palmer to start pulling them out of their hole and the sophomore from Waunakee High School answered the call. Setter Lindsey Swansby found Palmer again and again in both the front and back row. Palmer finished the set with nine kills on 27 attempts without an error, and the Eagles claimed a 25-22 win.
The fourth set was all Eagles from the outset. Bylsma had two kills and a block in the first eight points of the set to help Edgewood College to an 8-2 lead. Aryn Wellnitz provided more damage with four kills of her own as the Eagles won 25-13 to set the stage for the fifth set dramatics.
With long rallies and extra points being played, the numbers in this match were staggering. The two teams combined for 128 kills on 488 attacks and 260 digs. Palmer took an amazing 80 attack attempts to reach her 26 kills and committed just three errors for a .287 attack percentage. Her 26 kills set a new school record in the rally scoring era (since 2001). She also ended up leading the team in digs with a career-high 27. Bylsma also had a career-high total with 16 kills. Wellnitz chipped in 12 kills herself.
There were plenty of digs to go around. Lindsey Swansby almost matched Palmer's total with a season-best 26 digs, while senior libero Kim Lueck picked up 20 of her own. Wellnitz added 18. However, nobody topped Wisconsin Lutheran's libero Kayla Ridgeman who raked in a remarkable 45 digs, including 15 alone in the third set. Lindsey Swansby totaled another season-high in assists with 48, the fourth highest total in school history in the rally scoring era.
Edgewood College will have little time to catch their breath. The Eagles stay in the NAC with a trip to Fond du Lac to face Marian University on Thursday evening.
