EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – In a hard-fought battle, the UW-Eau Claire women's volleyball team narrowly fell to UW-Oshkosh 3-2 (22-25, 30-28, 25-21, 22-25, 15-7) in the McPhee Physical Education to end the Blugolds' season.
In the first set, the Blugolds led a majority of way. They reached their largest lead midway through the set at 15-10. While the Titans outscored the Blugolds 12-10 the rest of the way, the early lead for Eau Claire was enough to capture the win.
The second set was back and forth nearly the entire way. In a set that featured 14 ties, Oshkosh narrowly came away with the 30-28 victory to even the match at one set apiece.
The Blugolds led early in the third set but it was tied up at 13 midway through. But the Titans then began to pull away, getting up by as many as five before winning by four.
The fourth set was close again but after an 8-8 tie, the Blugolds scored two more points to get up 10-8 and never trailed the rest of the way as they won by three.
Oshkosh took the early lead in the fifth set and never trailed the entire time, steadily building up to its eight-point lead by the end.
As a team, the Blugolds hit .219 with 66 kills and 17 errors while Oshkosh totaled 77 kills and 29 errors with a hitting percentage of .203. The Blugolds finished with a total of five blocks.
Katrina Raskie (So.-Weston, Wis./D.C. Everest) led the match with 19 kills while Kelly Riesgraf (Jr.-Chaska, Minn.) totaled 18 and Alexis Wong (Sr.-Maple Grove, Minn.) had 15. The Blugolds finished with 104 digs, led by Raskie with 23. Jenna Smits (Jr.-Green Bay, Wis./Preble) had a team-high 53 set assists.
The Blugolds end the season with a 16-17 overall and 3-5 conference record.
-KAM-
