Volleyball team serves up well-fought sets

Nicole Witt, Associate Reporter

Despite the chilly Friday evening on Oct. 3, competition was getting heated in Mitchell Hall during the Women’s Volleyball game. Fans filtered into the stands to watch the Eagles revisit the out-of-conference opponent, Luther College, whom they played in Decorah, Iowa earlier in the season. This match was part of the series in the UW-La Crosse Invitational. Participating teams were UW-L, Luther College, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stout. The Eagles fell to the Norse, going 2-3 (27-29, 29-27, 21-25, 25-23, 10-15). The Eagles finished the game with an 8-10 overall record and 1-1 in the conference. The game began with an Eagle’s serve. From there, scoring was kept fairly close. Neither team fell more than a few points behind the other. In the second set, the Eagles came out of the gate strong. They played strong, both offensively and defensively. The Norse ended up losing hold of the reins, and the Eagles took the second set (29-27). The third set was a bit more of a struggle for the Eagles, leaving them to fall 21-25 to the Norse. Still unwilling to take a loss without a battle, they swept away the fourth set with a 25-23 win. Now this was becoming game point, and the first team to 15 for the last set would take the game. In this set, the Norse played a strong offensive game. The Eagles had a few more errors, ultimately leading to the loss of the set 10-15. Leading the offense with 18 kills was junior Leah Putzier, followed by sophomore Jill Entinger with 11. Also adding points to the board with kills alone were freshman Jessica Jablonski (9), junior Sydney Bump (7), freshman Stephanie Henk (7) and junior Jaclyn Barrette (3). UW-L shone with determination offensively, where they led in 204 total attacks over Luther with 174. Junior Jaclyn Barrette led the Eagles with 44 assists. Each team had 8 serving aces. The leading scorer was Putzier with 22 points. Defensively, each team came out strong. Both teams had 18 assisted blocks. The Eagles all played very well defensively, returning many spikes and keeping the ball in play. Entinger led with 5 assisted blocks, and 4 for both Barrette and Jablonski. Jablonski also had 2 solo blocks. The tournament will play through Saturday, Oct. 20, where the Eagles will face UW-Oshkosh. The upcoming games will be played within the WIAC, beginning Oct. 10 against UW-Superior at home.