WHITEWATER, Wis. - The UW-Eau Claire volleyball team fell to No. 17 UW-La Crosse in five games today at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference volleyball tournament in the third place match.

The Eagles won by scores of 30-24, 30-25, 30-32, 24-30, 15-9. This loss drops the Blugolds toa 22-10 record. La Crosse now has a 24-9 record. Both teams must wait for the NCAA Division III brackets to be released to see if they made the tournament. The brackets will be released on November 5.

The Blugolds started really slow losing the first two games by scores of 30-24 and 30-25. The Blugolds fought back winning the next two games to force a fifth game. The scores of the third and fourth game were close. The scores were 32-30 and 30-24. La Crosse won the decisive fifth game 15-9 to take the match.

La Crosse hit .302 in game one, which was much higher than the Blugolds who hit .193 in game one as a team. La Crosse also out hit the Blugolds in game two with a .174 percentage. The Blugolds finished game two with a .148 percentage. The Blugolds won game three, but were still outhit by La Crosse. In game four, the Blugolds had a .269 percentage compared to La Crosse's .163. In the fifth game the Blugolds had a negative hitting percentage of -.136 and La Crosse finished with a .222.

The Blugolds ended up with 71 kills. Abby Freiborg (Jr.-Sacred Heart, MN/Renville County West) led the Blugolds with 17 kills. Nikki Peterson (Sr.-North St. Paul, MN/North) and Rachel Ver Voort (Fr.-Madison, WI/Middleton) both chipped in 15 kills. Danielle Lucia (Fr.-St. Cloud, MN/Apollo) also had 13 kills for the Blugolds. La Crosse finished with 67 kills. Katelyn Carlson led the Eagles with 25 kills. Emily Haese (Jr.-Mishicot, WI) finished with 58 assists for the Blugolds, and Heather Harnell (Sr.-Minnetonka, MN) had 28 digs. Cassie Hunt (So.-Chippewa Falls, WI/McDonell) and Lindsey Smith (So.-Maple Lake, MN) also did well for the defense. Hunt had 21 digs and Smith had 20.

Eau Claire-La Crosse Box Score

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