EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – For the first time this season, the No. 14 UW-Stevens Point volleyball team came from two-sets-to-none down to claim a 18-25, 24-26, 25-17, 25-18, 15-6 win over UW-Eau Claire in the first round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament on Tuesday evening at McPhee Phy Ed Center.
 
Box Score
 
After losing the first two sets, fifth-seeded UW-Stevens Point (25-7) rallied to take the match the distance and ran through the fifth set to defeat UW-Eau Claire (26-8) and improve to 6-3 in five-set matches this season. The Pointers won the first nine points of the fifth set and survived a brief attempted comeback to advance to face top-seeded UW-Oshkosh on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Oshkosh.

Gabby Thomas (Henderson, MN/LeSueur-Henderson) and Bella Nelson (Luck, WI/Luck) tied for the match-lead with 15 kills for the Pointers. Nelson's 15 kills were her second-best mark of the season and Emma Brunkhorst (Germantown, WI/Germantown) pitched in with 13 kills and 10 blocks.
 
Brittany Laffin (Carpentersville, IL/Hampshire) had 49 assists and five players had double-digit digs, led by 20 from Bri Piepenbrok (Merrill, WI/Merrill). Hannah Picel (West Bend, WI/West) and Marie Krengel (Eagan, MN/Eastview) each added 19 digs, while Krengel had a career-high five aces.
 
UW-Stevens Point hit .148 in the win and held UW-Eau Claire to a .090 clip. The Pointers hit .368 in the decisive fifth set, compared to .000 for the Blugolds.
 
UW-Eau Claire raced out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and never trailed, taking it 25-18. UW-Stevens Point got within 7-5 early but that was as close as the Pointers got. UWSP hit just -.024 in the opening set and Emily Miller and Hannah Theisen each had four kills in the frame for UWEC.
 
The Blugolds again got off to a quick lead in the second set, leading by as many as 15-8. However, the Pointers defense sparked a 6-1 run to get UWSP within two at 16-14. UW-Stevens Point eventually leveled set at 24-24 by saving a set point but UW-Eau Claire took a two-set lead on a kill by Miller and a UWSP attack error.
 
In the third, it was UW-Stevens Point that got out to an early lead, winning seven of the first nine points. After a UW-Eau Claire timeout with the hosts trailing 16-7, the Blugolds went on a 7-1 run to get with three, 17-14. Brunkhorst ended the run with a kill as part of a 4-1 UWSP run to re-establish a 21-15 lead that the Pointers saw out.
 
After trailing 4-3 early, the Pointers used a 9-0 run to take a 12-4 lead in the fourth. Brunkhorst had three blocks in the run and Marie Krengel (Eagan, MN/Eastview) added three aces. The run extended to 13-1 to give UWSP a 16-5 lead but the Blugolds fought back to 21-15 with a 7-0 run of their own. However, the Pointers regrouped and closed out the set 25-18 to send it the distance.