Volleyball Preview: Stout host La Crosse tonight in Senior & Parent Night

vs. La Crosse Live Video

THIS WEEK'S GAMES:   Tonight marks the final regular season game of the season for UW-Stout (19-9, 3-4 WIAC) and for UW-La Crosse (9-17, 1-6 WIAC). The Blue Devils are still in the hunt for a spot in the 2014 WIAC Volleyball Championship, which opens Tuesday, Nov. 4 at quarterfinal sites to be announced. Friday is Parents' Night and Senior Night. The Blue Devils will honor their three seniors, Morgan Denny, Nicole Bradford and Karley Wiensch.

ON-LINE: All home Blue Devil matches are available in a live video stream.

BLUE DEVILS LAST TIME OUT: The Blue Devils overcame a poor, 25-6, first set loss to UW-Stevens Point, but still came up short against the Pointers, falling 25-21, 25-19.  Morgan Denny and Ashley Pratt each had eight kills to lead Stout. | Story and Stats

A LOOK AT STOUT: With 19 wins, the Blue Devils have put together more wins in a single season since the 2004 season. Morgan Denny has put together her best season as a Blue Devils, averaging 3.00 kills per set, ranking her fourth in the WIAC. The middle blocker has 309 kills on the season, running her career totals to 991, where she ranks 10th on the all-time UW-Stout kills list. Denny averages 0.90 blocks per set, sixth in the WIAC. She currently has 137 career solo blocks and 224 career assisted blocks. Nicole Bradford went over 1000 career digs a couple of weeks ago. The senior libero is averaging 4.38 digs per set, ranking sixth in the WIAC. She currently has 1044 career digs. Karley Wiensch went over 1000 assists for the season Wednesday, tallying 1023 assists for the year, with a 9.84 average per set, good for third in the league. Wiensch came into the season with 2911 career assists, and has run her career total to 3934, good for third on the Stout all-time assist list. Laura Reiter is averaging 2.62 kills per set. Freshman Ashley Pratt is averaging 2.24 kills per set, and has moved up to third in the WIAC in hitting percentage (.308). . As a team, Stout is third in the WIAC in hitting percentage (.208), fifth in assists (11.38), fifth in kills (12.13), sixth in blocks (1.62), fourth in service aces (1.34) and fifth in digs (16.62). Stout was picked to finish eighth in the conference, according to a WIAC preseason poll. | 2014 Stats | 2013 Stats

A LOOK AT UW-LA CROSSE: TThe Eagles have struggled as of late, dropping eight of their last 10 matches, including a 3-1 loss to UW-Platteville Wednesday. Leah Putzier is leading the Eagles at the net with 2.76 kills per set, and is second in the WIAC in service aces (0.41) and Jaclyn Barrette is fourth (0.33). Ida Steingas has 2.29 and Stephanie Henk 2.17. Jaclyn Barrette is averaging 8.42 assists per set. Jill Entinger leads the Eagles on the block, averaging 0.66 per set. | 2014 Stats

THE LAST TIME STOUT AND UW-LA CROSSE MET: After dropping the first set 25-19, Stout overpowered the Eagles, 25-11, in the second set. In set three, Stout jumped out to a 23-14 lead, then held off La Crosse for a 25-20 win, Oct. 25, 2013. The fourth set wavered back and forth by only a few points throughout before Stout prevailed, 28-26. Morgan Denny led the way with 12 kills, two service aces, three solo blocks and two assisted blocks. Emily Crew added 10 kills, one solo block and three assisted blocks. The Eagles' Laura Probst led all players with 15 kills. | Story and Stats

A LOOK AT UW-EAU CLAIRE: Katrina Raskie  leads the Blugolds with 2.68 kills per set, Alison Wong has recorded 2.48 and Megan Tracy has put down 2.38. Kelly Riesgraf is averaging 0.83 blocks per set. The Blugolds have won five of their last 10 matches. | 2014 Stats

THE LAST TIME STOUT AND UW-EAU CLAIRE MET:UW-Stout came back in all three sets, but could never quite get an advantage and were defeated in three sets by UW-Eau Claire, Oct. 13, 2013, at Johnson Fieldhouse. The Blugolds took the match 27-25, 25-17, 25-20, but the Blue Devils were always on the precipice of turning the tables. In the opening set, Stout by as much as 11-5, but made a comeback and Alyssa Hofacker's back-to-back service aces made the score 20-20. The set was never separated by more than two points the rest of the way. Stout fell behind in the second set, but couldn't recover as well as in the first set. In set three, Stout fell behind, but tied the score at 19-19 before Eau Claire rolled off six of the next seven points. Eau Claire's Kelly Schuch led all players with 13 kills. Stout was led by Emily Crew  with nine kils. Morgan Denny had two solo blocks. The Blugolds finished with eight block assists. | Story and Stats

TEAM CAPTAINS: Captains for the 2014 season are Morgan Denny, Nicole Bradford, Laura Reiter and Molly Brion

UW-STOUT COACH LAURA EVANS: Coach Laura Evans (19-9) is in her first year as the Blue Devil coach, replacing Jill Jolliff, who completed 21 seasons as the program's head coach, the longest tenure of any UW-Stout volleyball coach. Evans, the former Laura Hegerle, played her college volleyball at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minn. She has been an assistant coach at Colorado Christian, Augsburg College and Luther College.

QUICK HITS: The Blue Devils are coming off their second consecutive 15-win season...preseason camp was very competitive, with nearly 30 potential players in before the roster was trimmed to 18...Stout will face Carleton and Macalester colleges on both their first and second days of competion. The Blue Devils open with the pair at the St. Olaf Tournament this weekend, then also open the Macalester Tournament with the same teams, Friday, Sept. 5...Stout has only one home date in September (Friday, Sept. 26 vs. UW-Platteville in the conference opener)...and four home dates in October...Stout faces eight of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) teams at some point this fall, and face Carleton, Macalester, and Bethel twice. The only WIAC school the Blue Devils are scheduled to meet twice is UW-Oshkosh, but a trip to the WIAC Tournament will change that.

AWARDS: Nicole Bradford was the UW-Stout/Northwestern Mutual Athlete of the Week after Stout went 3-1 from Oct. 6-11...Morgan Denny was the UW-Stout/Northwestern Mutual Athlete of the Week after her performance at the St. Kate's Invitational, Sept. 19-20...Morgan Denny and Karley Wiensch were named to the St. Kate's Invitational all-tournament team, Sept. 20...Morgan Denny was named to the Macalester College all-tournament team, Sept. 6...Kaylee Jacobs was selected to the all-tournament team at the St. Olaf/Carleton Invitational, Aug. 29...Karley Wiensch was an honorable mention selection to the 2013 All-WIAC Volleyball team...Morgan Denny earned Academic All-District honors...the entire 2013 squad was honored by the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) with the Team Academic Award for the fourth time in five years....

DOWN THE ROAD:  The quarterfinals of the WIAC Tournament are Tuesday, Nov. 4, with the semi-finals Friday, Nov. 7 and finals Saturday, Nov. 8. The top six teams make the field, with the No. 1 and No. 2 teams getting a first round bye. The No. 3 and No. 4 seeded teams will host a quarterfinals game. The winners of  those matches will advance to the semi-finals match, hosted by the No. 1 seeded team.