Volleyball drops two games on first day of North Central Tourney

NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville volleyball team dropped its first two games of the weekend at the Tiffany Robinson Memorial Tournament on Friday. The Pioneers fell to Wheaton (Ill.), 3-1 (25-21, 25-14, 22-25, 25-19) then to host North Central (Ill.), 3-1 (25-18, 25-21, 16-25, 25-17).

In the first-set against Wheaton the Pioneers jumped out to a 17-13 lead. Wheaton used a 5-1 run to tie it up at 18-18 and then took a 23-20 lead to win 25-21. The Thunder took a quick 7-2 lead and increased their lead to 17-6. The Pioneers weren't able to muster a comeback as Wheaton took a two set lead, 25-14.

UW-Platteville didn't go down without a fight and took a 10-5 lead in the third-set after kill from Lidia Frias. The Pioneers increased their lead to 19-12 and cruised to a 25-22 victory. UW-Platteville fell behind 14-2 in the fourth-set and loss 25-19.

Senior Stephanie Kirchner led the Pioneers with a .448 hitting percentage as she recorded 14 kill and only had one error on 29 attempts. Sophomore Jennifer Schmidt added 14 kills of her own, while Frias tallied nine kills. Freshman Lindsey Decker posted a game-high 16 digs to go with her four kills.

The Pioneers had an early lead against host North Central but a late run by the Cardinals earned them a one set lead, 25-18. North Central kept its momentum from the first-set to go up two sets to zero, 25-21. The Pioneers ended the third-set on a 5-0, winning 25-16. The Cardinals used their own set ending run in the four-set to setback the Pioneers, 25-17.

Kirchner ended her day with nine kills with one error and 29 attempts against NCC, while Schmidt recorded a team-high 10 kills. Decker tallied 13 digs and eight kills

UW-Platteville moves to 9-14 on the season and will look to bounce back on Saturday when the play against Finlandia at 10 a.m. then North Park at noon.