MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville women's volleyball team scored a pair of sweeps on Saturday at the Wisconsin Lutheran Tournament. The Pioneers (5-2) took down Rose-Hulman (25-14, 25-18, 25-21) in the morning's opener before blanking the host team (25-20, 26-24, 29-27).
VS. Rose-Hulman
Senior
Bria Johnston paced the Pioneers in the day's first match, registering a .355 hitting percentage behind 14 kills. Johnston tallied two service aces while adding 11 digs to the stat sheet.
In the first two sets, the score remained close at the start, but the Pioneers held the Engineers (1-5) to -.075 and .088 hitting percentages, enabling them to cruise to a two-set advantage. The final set seemed to be a little more competitive as the Pioneers led only 15-13 midway through, but six-straight points including three kills from Johnston gave the Pioneers a 21-13 advantage. Sophomore Molly Anderson's kill brought on set point and freshman
Lauren Abbott's kill put away the match.
Junior
Kennedey Barber registered a match-high 18 digs while junior
Laura Boberg (18) and sophomore
Delali Amankwa (17) finished with double-digit assists.
VS. Wisconsin Lutheran
While the Pioneers doubled down with a second sweep, the Warriors forced the Pioneers into extended play in two sets. Radecke closed out the tournament strong, putting away a match-best 14 kills. Johnston also finished in double-digit kills with 11 while junior
Paige Foltz finished hitting .571 with eight kills.
The Warriors jumped out to a 7-2 advantage in the first set, but the Pioneers answered with six-straight to lead by one. The set went back-and-forth until four straight kills from sophomore
Grace Rohde, junior
Addison Albrecht and Radecke put the Pioneers ahead, 24-20. A bad set by the Warriors closed out the first set.
The Pioneers pulled out to a 10-7 lead in the second set, but Wisconsin Lutheran strung together four-straight points. From then on, the set went back and forth until a kill by Johnston and an attack error by the host team finished the set 26-24.
UW-Platteville started the final set strong and a kill by Radecke gave the Pioneers a 12-8 lead. Wisconsin Lutheran wasn't going away without a fight and took the next eight points behind four kills, an ace, a block, and two attacking errors. Fortunately, UW-Platteville captured the next four points to tie the set at 16 and would score four-straight later on to tie the set again at 21. The Warriors used an ace to jump ahead 27-26, but in thrilling fashion, a kill by Rohde tied it up and then back-to-back kills from Radecke closed out the set 29-27.
Barber increased her digs to 21 in the second match and Amankwa had a match-best 26 assists.
Up next, the Pioneers hit the road for Coe College on Wednesday, September 16 match at 7 p.m.
