Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Gillian Ekern Junior Emily Zupon attempts to spike the ball in Tuesday's game against UW-River Falls. Zupon tied for the team lead with 13 kills in the match.

On Tuesday, the UW-Eau Claire volleyball team found themselves trailing by two games in a best-of-five match against UW-River Falls in the opening round of the WIAC tournament. A loss in the third game would have eliminated the Blugolds from the tournament, and would have weakened their shot at an at-large bid into the national tournament.

In the decisive third game, the Blugolds trailed 21-17, but rallied to cut the deficit to one. With the score at 25-24, and River Falls only needing one point to eliminate the Blugolds, Eau Claire scored three consecutive points to win the game and take momentum in the series.

The victory forced a fourth game, which the Blugolds once again narrowly won, 25-23.

In the fifth game, the Blugolds used the momentum they built up in the previous two games to win in dominant fashion, 15-7.

Offensively, the Blugolds had four players in the double-digits for kills. Senior Kristen Moore and junior Emily Zupon each recorded 13 kills, while juniors Danielle Lucia and Rachael Ver Voort added 11 and 10 respectively. Freshman Emily Neave led the match with 38 assists.

In addition to the high kill totals, Eau Claire also had four players record double-digit dig totals in the match. Ver Voort led the team with 17 digs while Neave and senior Lindsey Smith added 14, and senior Cassie Hunt pitched in with 13.

The win advanced Eau Claire to the semi-finals on Friday, where they will travel to UW-Oshkosh to take on the top-seeded Titans. A win for Eau Claire would advance them to the final round of the Tournament on Saturday where they would play either UW-Platteville or UW-Whitewater for the WIAC crown.

The opening round victory for the Blugolds came after a dominating performance in the UW-River Falls Trick-or-Treat Classic, in which Eau Claire swept all four of their opponents. The Blugolds will head to Oshkosh with a 10-match winning streak, their longest of the season.

Earlier this season, the Blugolds lost to Oshkosh 3-1 on Oct. 2. Oshkosh ran away with the WIAC regular-season title this year after compiling a 34-1 overall record, and an 8-0 WIAC record. Last season the two teams met in the finals of the WIAC tournament, with Oshkosh winning. The two teams did, however, share the regular season WIAC title last season.

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