LA CROSSE, Wis. – After trailing by two sets, the No. 13 UW-Stevens Point volleyball team came back to send the match the distance but fell 25-16, 25-16, 12-25, 23-25, 15-13 to UW-La Crosse on Friday evening at Mitchell Hall.
 
Box Score
 
UW-La Crosse (13-7, 3-1 WIAC) raced out to a 2-0 lead after hitting over .300 in each of the first two sets. UW-Stevens Point (18-6, 1-3 WIAC) responded by cruising through the third and taking a tight fourth, but the Eagles recovered to take the decisive fifth. The Pointers fell to 4-3 in five-set matches this season.
 
In the fifth, UW-La Crosse won four straight points to take a 9-5 lead and continued to lead by four at 12-8. UW-Stevens Point then fought back to get within 14-13 following a block by Maddie Courter (Geneva, IL/Geneva) and Gabby Thomas (Henderson, MN/LeSueur-Henderson) but UWL's Jill Entinger ended the match with a kill.
 
Entinger led four Eagles in double figures with 16 kills and hit .433 in the match. Leah Putzier had 13 kills, Stephanie Henk added 12 and Ashley Entinger pitched in with 11. Jaclyn Barrette recorded 52 assists and 13 digs and Danica Johnson had a team-high 17 digs.
 
Bella Nelson (Luck, WI/Luck) had a match and career-high 18 kills to lead the Pointers. Thomas hit .367 and hit 13 kills, while Kelly Cefalu (Waunakee, WI/Waunakee) added 11 kills. Brittany Laffin (Carpentersville, IL/Hampshire) orchestrated the offense with 48 assists and Hannah Picel (West Bend, WI/West) led the defense with a match-high 21 digs.
 
After losing the first two sets to the hot-hitting Eagles, the Pointers hit .389 in the third and had just one error. UW-Stevens Point's defense held UW-La Crosse to an attack percentage of .000 in the third after the Eagles hit .433 in the first and .318 in the second.
 
Looking to rebound from dropping the third, UW-La Crosse got out to an 18-13 lead in the fourth before UW-Stevens Point battled back to tie it at 20-20. With the teams locked at 23-23, the Pointers forced the match the distance on kills by Cefalu and Courter.
 
UW-La Crosse hit .234 in the match compared to .181 for UW-Stevens Point. The Eagles just .148 in the fifth set but held the Pointers to a .043 clip.
 
The Pointers take a break from WIAC play by heading to the Oshkosh for a weekend tournament on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16-17. UW-Stevens Point opens the tournament against Martin Luther at 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening before taking on St. Thomas and No. 8 Colorado College on Saturday.