Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: Sports

Freshman Danielle Lucia and Senior Lissa Martinez block a shot during Tuesday's Volleyball match against UW Superior in the McPhee Center. The bluegolds won the match 3-1.

The UW-Eau Claire volleyball team went 2-2 at the Washington University (Miss) Tournament last weekend to start the 2008-09 season. Throughout the weekend, the Blugolds played four matches, finishing with two victories.

"When we were scheduling the tournament, we were looking to compete against some nationally ranked teams," Head Coach Kim Wudi said.

The Blugolds finished with a 22-11 overall record in 2007-08, as they finished third in the WIAC and making this their ninth-ever appearance at the NCAA Championships.

As they entered the new season, the Blugolds were ranked by CBS College Sports Network/American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Div. III Coaches Top 25 Preseason Poll as the 19th best team in the nation.

"It's nice to be ranked that high and to be nationally recognized," senior Abby Freiborg said. "Hopefully we will be ranked higher as the season gets going."

Wudi agrees that rankings are not too important this early in the season.

"It's the ranking at the end of the season that matters more," Wudi said. "Being ranked highly now kind of puts a target on our backs."

Returning players include All-WIAC Team selection Freiborg, the team's leading killer with 397 and the WIAC leader in service aces with 76.

Senior Emily Haese is the team's assists leader, and senior Katie Fox is the team's blocks leader; both were honorable mentions on the All-WIAC team and will be returning for another season with the Blugolds.

"We're a dynamic offensive team," Wudi said. "We're a pretty good serving team - we like to disrupt the other teams with our serves."

In the opening match, the Blugolds lost to Simpson College (Iowa) 3-2, but rebounded with consecutive sweeps 3-0 against Cardinal Stritch University (Minn.) and Lawrence University.

In their final match of the tournament, the Blugolds lost to the defending national champions - Washington-St. Louis by a 3-1 tally - in four games.

"We made sure to play our game," Freiborg said. "The defending national champs were there, and, no matter who we played, we kept playing our game."

The Blugolds will travel to Minneapolis to compete in the Augsburg Tournament this Friday and Saturday.

St. Thomas (Minn.), the team that eliminated the Blugolds from the Volleyball Championship last season, will participate in the tournament.

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