WHITEWATER, Wis. – Hannah Picel (West Bend, WI/West Bend West) became UW-Stevens Point's all-time leader in career digs but the No. 12 UW-Stevens Point volleyball team fell in four sets to No. 13 UW-Whitewater 30-28, 25-23, 18-25, 25-12 on Wednesday evening at Russell Arena.
 
Box Score
 
Picel broke the record in the third set as UW-Stevens Point (15-4, 1-1 WIAC) started its attempted comeback by making her 2,164th career dig. However, UW-Whitewater (15-3, 1-1 WIAC) rebounded from dropping the third to close out the match in four. Picel is just the second UWSP player to top 2,000 career digs and ranks second among all active NCAA Division III players in that category.
 
Kelly Cefalu (Waunakee, WI/Waunakee) had a career and match-high 21 kills, her sixth consecutive double-digit effort, for the Pointers and was joined in double figures by Gabby Thomas (Henderson, MN/LeSueur-Henderson) with 12. Brittany Laffin (Carpentersville, IL/Hampshire) registered 42 assists, while Marie Krengel (Eagan, MN/Eastview), Bri Piepenbrok (Merrill, WI/Merrill) and Picel had 19, 18 and 17 digs, respectively.
 
Lauren Pfeifer led three Warhawks in double figures in kills with 18, while Sydney Racky had 15 and Brittney Langley added 14. Staci Hasler tallied 53 assists and Brittany Robinson made 30 digs for the hosts, who earned their fourth-straight win against ranked teams.
 
UW-Whitewater hit .419 in the first set but UW-Stevens Point hung right with them by hitting .316. The Pointers had two set points but kills by Pfeifer and Racky erased them and the Warhawks wrapped up the set 30-28 on kills by Lacky and Angelika Pointer.
 
UW-Stevens Point led 16-12 near the midway point of the second set but UW-Whitewater fought back to level the set at 20-20. The Warhawks then took a 24-22 lead before the Pointers saved a set point on a block by Maddie Courter (Geneva, IL/Geneva) and Thomas, only for Pfeifer to record a kill on the next point.
 
After UW-Whitewater hit .353 in the first two sets, UW-Stevens Point's defense helped spark a comeback, as the Pointers raced out to a 13-6 lead in the third. The Pointers did not let the Warhawks get any closer than four the rest of the set and held UWW to a .098 attack percentage.
 
UW-Stevens Point took an 11-9 lead early in the fourth before UW-Whitewater went on an 8-1 run to go up 17-12. With the Warhawks leading 24-17, the Pointers saved four match points but Racky's kill out of a timeout ended the match.
 
UW-Whitewater outhit UW-Stevens Point .210-.173 in the match. The Warhawks also held a 9.5-8 edge in blocks thanks to 5.5 blocks in the fourth set.
 
The Pointers travel to Wheaton, Ill. for three matches this weekend, Oct. 2-3. UW-Stevens Point opens the tournament against Saint Mary's (Ind.) at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night.