THIS WEEK'S GAMES: The Blue Devils (0-0, 0-0 WIAC) open the 2014 season under first hear head coach
Laura Evans, Friday, Aug. 29 when they travel to Northfield, Minn., to compete in the St. Olaf/Carleton Tournament. The Blue Devils will meet
Carleton College at 2 p.m. and
Macalester College at 4 p.m. Friday is the opener for Division III.
ON-LINE: All home Blue Devil matches are available in a
live video stream.
BLUE DEVILS LAST TIME OUT:Â UW-Stout finished the 2013 season at 15-15 overall, 2-6 in the WIAC, placing eighth. | Story and Box Score
A LOOK AT STOUT:Â The Blue Devils return three seniors to the squad - setter
Karley Wiensch, middle hitter
Morgan Denny, and defensive specialist
Nicole Bradford. Both Wiensch and Denny have started or seen considerable action since their freshmen seasons. Junior hitter
Laura Reiter led the Blue Devils years in the attack, averaging 3.00 kills per set. Denny was just behind with 2.35 kills and led the team in blocks for the third consecutive season, averaging 0.83 total blocks per set. Wiensch handled the majority of the setting, averaging 9.46 assists per contest. Wiensch was the team leader in service aces with 33 and Bradford had 25. Bradford led the team in digs with 3.41. Stout returns eight players from last year's squad, and brings 10 new faces to the roster. Stout was picked to finish eighth, according to a WIAC preseason poll. | 2014 Stats |
2013 StatsA LOOK AT CARLETON: The Knight's Camile Benson led the MIAC last season in digs and was a first team all-conference selection at libero. Setters Caroline Duke and Alicia Flatt, who split time in the offense, both return from a team that finished 13-14 overall and 1-10 in the MIAC, Duke was second on the team in kills. |
2013 StatsLAST TIME THEY MET:Â The Knights defeated the Blue Devil in four games when the teams met last year in the Macalester Invitational.
Molly Brion led Stout with 10kills, while Claire Willeck had 13 for the Knights to lead all scorers |
Story and Box ScoreA LOOK AT MACALESTER:Â For the first time in four years, the Scots will be without all-everything player Laura Avenan, who was a three-time all-MIAC selection. Avena graduated the program third on the all-time kills list. The cupboard is not bare for the Scots, which finished last year at 13-14 overall. The team returns two of their three kills leader from last season in Brooke Hunter with 247 kills and Hannah Rehauk with 139 kills. Cara Trout led the team in digs with 299. |
2013 StatsLAST TIME THEY MET:Â The Blue Devils blanked the Scots last season, 3-0, but the scores were close, 25-23, 25-22, 25-22, in the team's final game at the Macalester Invitational. Stout's
Karley Wiensch was selected to the all-tournament team. |
Story and Box ScoreTEAM CAPTAINS: Captains for the 2014 season are
Morgan Denny,
Nicole Bradford,
Laura Reiter and
Molly BrionUW-STOUT COACH LAURA EVANS: Coach
Laura Evans (0-0) begins 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: Â The Blue Devils are coming off their seconds 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: 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 Blue Devils will compete at the Macalester College Tournament, Sept. 5-6 and will face Carleton College and Macalester College on the first day and Beloit College and Minnesota-Morris on the second day.
