By: Jake Krier, UWEC Sports Information

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (blugolds.com) - The second and final day of the Sandy Schumacher Memorial Tournament began with the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire volleyball team taking No. 15-ranked Millikin University to five sets. Unfortunately, the Blugolds fell short and lost the final set 15-11.

It was just the second time all season that Eau Claire faced a fifth set, with the first coming back in their opening weekend tournament. In this matchup with the Big Blue, the Schumacher Tournament hosts led 10-6 in the fifth, but Millikin put together the comeback and went on a 9-1 run to finish the match.

In the defeat, Eau Claire hit .185 to Millikin's .240 but still had three hitters reach double-digits in kills. Madelyn Pashibin (Jr.-Minneapolis, MN/Minneapolis Southwest) had 19 on 54 attempts, Jessica Coyne (Jr.-Verona, WI) had 15 on 41 attempts, and Krista Meyer (Fr.-Germantown, WI) had 12 on 30 attempts.

Notching forty-plus assists for the second-consecutive match was Madison Surprise (Jr.-Appleton, WI/Kimberly). She finished with 43. Both Talia Jaskulske (Sr.-Maplewood, MN/North St. Paul) and Amber Karn (Jr.-Middleton, WI) exceeded the ten dig mark, as Jaskulske finished with 19 and Karn with eleven.

Eau Claire finished off the tournament against Augsburg University. The Blugolds topped the Auggies in straight sets, winning 27-25, 25-17, and 25-22. The bookend sets were the more competitive of the three, and the blue and gold nearly held Augsburg to single digits in the second set albeit for a late Auggie surge.

Coyne crushed it in the Auggie match. The junior racked up 16 kills on only 25 attempts. Pashibin followed her with eleven kills of her own. Thirty-nine assists for Surprise led the way for setters. Jaskulske and Karn tallied 14 and ten digs respectively.

Following the weekend's tournament, the Blugolds will now return to conference play. They travel to UW-La Crosse on Wednesday with a start time set for 7:00 p.m.

Follow all the action on Blugold Game Day.