KENOSHA, Wis. – The fifth-ranked UW-Stevens Point volleyball team posted a pair of wins over ranked teams, sweeping No. 25 Dominican and battling past No. 14 Elmhurst in five on at the Carthage Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
No. 5 UW-Stevens Point 3, No. 25 Dominican 0 | Box UW-Stevens Point (11-2) bounced back from its first losses of the season by downing Dominican (8-3) by a score of 25-16, 25-23, 26-24.
Emma Brunkhorst (Germantown, WI/Germantown) and
Gabby Thomas (Henderson, MN/LeSueur-Henderson) paced the UWSP offense with 11 kills each. Thomas committed just one error on 22 swings for an attack percentage of .455.
Brittany Laffin (Carpentersville, IL/Hampshire) recorded 33 assists for UW-Stevens Point.
Bri Piepenbrok (Merrill, WI/Merrill),
Kelly Cefalu (Waunakee, WI/Waunakee) and
Marie Krengel (Eagan, MN/Eastview) were each in double figures in digs with 17, 16 and 10, respectively.
Kendyl Todd was the lone player in double figures in kills for the Stars with a match-high 12. Christian Wilson had 31 assists and 13 digs for Dominican.
UW-Stevens Point used a pair of 4-0 runs in the first set to take it 25-16. The first run turned a 15-14 advantage into a 19-14 lead and the Pointers later won the final four points of the set.
Dominican went on a 5-0 run midway through the second set to go up 17-11 before UW-Stevens Point staged a late-set turnaround. The Pointers claimed 11 of the final 15 points in the second and closed it out on a kill by Thomas.
The Pointers got out to a 5-1 run to start the third but Dominican later won seven consecutive points to take a 15-14 lead. Late in the set, UW-Stevens Point broke a 24-24 tie on a block by Brunkhorst and
Bella Nelson (Luck, WI/Luck) and a kill by Thomas to seal the win.
No. 5 UW-Stevens Point 3, No. 14 Elmhurst 2 | Box In its third five-set match of the weekend, UW-Stevens Point (12-2) recovered from dropping the fourth set to close out Elmhurst (9-3) 25-27, 25-18, 25-15, 14-25, 15-11. The win improves the Pointers to 17-6 against ranked teams under
Abbey Sutherland.
After dropping a tough first set 27-25, UW-Stevens Point came back to take the next two sets and a two-set-to-one lead. The Pointers trailed 7-1 early in the second but won eight points in a row to take a 19-11 lead later in the set and went on to even the match at a set apiece.
The Pointers hit .290 in the second set and committed just two errors to go up 2-1. However, the Blue Jays had just one error and hit .414 in the fourth to send the match the distance.
UW-Stevens Point opened up a 5-2 lead early in the fifth set but Elmhurst hung around by winning three points in a row to get within 12-11. The Pointers then closed out the match with kills by Brunkhorst and Cefalu and an ace by Piepenbrok.
Brunkhorst matched her season-high with 20 kills and hit .447 in the match. Following the tournament, the senior was named to the All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.50 kills per set and hitting .312 over the four matches. She also moved into fourth place on UWSP's all-time kill charts and now has 1,161 career kills.
Cefalu added a double-double of 15 kills and 15 digs. Laffin recorded 47 assists, 17 digs and five aces.
Hannah Picel (West Bend, WI/West Bend West) led the Pointers' defense with 24 digs, while Piepenbrok had 19.
Alli Rogers led Elmhurst with 17 kills, Hannah Nimrick had 43 assists and Amy Schryver had a match-best 29 digs in the loss. The Blue Jays outhit the Pointers .198-.164 and held an 11-3 edge in blocks but UWSP hit a season-high 13 aces in the match.
UW-Stevens Point begins Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play at UW-Platteville on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 7 p.m.
