STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The Edgewood College volleyball team made a valiant comeback and nearly notched its fourth win over a WIAC opponent this season but fell just short to nationally-ranked UW-Stevens Point Tuesday night at Berg Gymnasium. The 16th-ranked Pointers held on to win 26-24, 25-22, 25-27, 23-25, 15-6.
The Eagles began in a two sets to none hole early on but were right with the Pointers throughout. The Eagles were down 17-12 at one point in the opening set but battled back to extend the set. The Eagles knotted things up at 24 apiece before an Emma Brunkhorst kill for the Pointers and an Eagles attacking error.
Edgewood College nearly put together a comeback for the ages in the second set after trailing 23-15. The Pointers appeared to have it all but settled but the Eagles cut the deficit to 24-22 before a service error ended the set.
The Pointers rattled off five-straight points to go up 5-1 in the third but the Eagles would put together four-straight points of their own to even things up. Later on in the set up 20-16 over the Pointers, the host team put together another 5-0 run to take a 21-20 lead.
The Eagles had match point at 24-22 but allowed UW-Stevens Point to regain the lead again at 25-24. Jordan Winkler then notched a kill on an assist from Haley Schwenn to even things up. A Pointers attacking error and a kill by Jenna Dammen then gave the Eagles the set victory to avoid the sweep.
Winkler sparked another run later in the fourth set with the scored tied at 20 points apiece, as the Eagles would pile on three more points following the senior's spike to go up 24-20. The Pointers made it interesting by scoring the next three points but Savannah Koester closed it out with a kill from Schwenn to end it at 25-23.
The Pointers scored the first three points in the deciding set and would lead 7-2 to grab hold of the momentum. Winkler had two kills and Renee Meister added another to score three of the last four Eagles points, but by then the Pointers had an 11-6 lead before notching the final four points.
The Eagles outhit the Pointers .134 to .112 and had an impressive 18 kills in the third set (.326 attack percentage. Winkler led a balanced Eagles offensive attack with 14 kills while Emily Chaussee added 10.
Senior Rachel Tesch anchored the defense again with 35 digs to give her two-straight matches with at least 30. Her total on Tuesday night was just two shy off her career high. Chaussee (26) and Winkler (25) were right behind Tesch as the Eagles racked up a total of 107 digs on the night.
Meister tied for third on the team in kills with eight and totaled three solo blocks and three block assists. Schwenn and Alex Zapuchlak split setting duties and the duo finished with 25 and 20 assists, respectively.
Edgewood College will round out the regular season with a triangular at the Edgedome on Saturday, Oct. 31. They will begin the day with a noon match against St. Norbert College and round out the regular season with a match against Wheaton College (Ill.) at approximately 4 pm.
