On a cold, chilly night, fans gathered into a warm Mitchel Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 29, for UW-Lacrosse Women’s Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) conference volleyball game against UW-Platteville.
Entering play, the Eagles’ record was 9-16. They were 1-5 in conference games. They played four long fought matches, but the Eagles took a hard blow to the Pioneers going 1-3 (16-25, 25-16, 22-25, 21-25). With another loss, this put them at 1-6 in the conference and 9-17 overall. They will not be going to the WIAC tournament.
The Eagles came out fighting from the very beginning. They were neck and neck in the first set at 16-15, with UW-P in the lead, but the Pioneers broke away to take the first set 25-16.
The second set the Eagles and Pioneers were tied early. UW-L broke free and took a 12-6 lead and never looked back. UW-P tried to fight back but fell up short. The Eagles took the second set 25-16.
UW-P took the third and the fourth sets. UW-L never gave up though. They fell behind at first and worked their way back to tie the set. The score went back and forth, but UW-P finally took the set 25-23. The fourth set was just as close, with teams going back and forth with the lead, but the Pioneers came out of top and won the set 25-21. They had won the match.
Even with the loss, UW-L Women’s Volleyball team never gave up. The sets were intensely fought. They worked together as a team to try to come out on top with a win.
Head Coach Lillian Hallock stated, “One of our strengths is definitely that we have a team that all gets along and has good team chemistry. On the down side, though, our weakness is our inconsistency.”
On the offensive side, sophomore Jill Entinger  and freshman Stephanie Henk  led the team with 12 kills each. Other leading players were sophomore Ashley Entinger.  who recorded 11 kills and junior Sydney Bump,  who recorded 10 kills.
Defensively, UW-L led with 57 digs, while UW-P had 47 digs. Freshman Maddie Entinger had 13 digs and senior Melanie Martin  had 12 digs.
Entinger  had 31 assists while freshman Paige Schmidt  recorded 19 assists. Entinger  got six block assists. UW-L had 7 blocks while UW-P had 6 blocks.
UW-P improved to 17-5 and 4-3 in the WIAC conference.
Through all the highs and the lows through the season, Hallock would never trade her job for anything.
“It is the greatest job in the world. I feel so lucky to be coaching my dream job. I played volleyball in high school and college and I just love it,” she said.
UW-L played their last season game on Friday, Oct. 31, against the UW-Stout.