Stout drops conference opener to Pioneers

UW-Platteville 3, UW-Stout 2

MENOMONIE (September 17, 2019) - Today marked Constitution Day in the United States. UW-Platteville proved to have a slightly stronger constitution tonight as the Pioneers edged UW-Stout, 3-2, in the opening match of the WIAC season Tuesday at Johnson Fieldhouse.

The Pioneers (9-2, 1-0 WIAC) won their seventh consecutive match with a 25-15, 15-25, 25-15, 21-25, 15-10 win 

Platteville held a strict advantage defensively at the net, recording two solo blocks – including the game decider by Kaite Asche for match point – and 18 assisted blocks. Katie Jones finished with six assisted blocks and Lita Solberg with five.
 
In a match that saw 21 tied scores and 13 lead changes, UW-Platteville prevailed with four players hitting in double digits, led by Olivia Kudronowicz with 14. Hailey Youngren finished up with 11 and Jones and Solberg each had 10.
 
Stout (9-4, 0-1 WIAC) was led on the attack by freshman Lydia Kneubuehl with 14 kills. McKylie Hoff and Kara Simonson each had 11 kills.
 
Both teams had 54 kills for the match and each had about the same number of total attacks – 136 for Platteville, 143 for Stout – but the Blue Devils had nearly twice as many hitting errors, recording 26 to 14 for Platteville.

Steph Cannon added to her career digs record, tallying 23 tonight. Jessica Duval had 25 assists and Lexie Nelson 13.

The Pioneers got 39 assists from Sam Rosseti and 21 digs from Stephanie Kalinowski.

The Blue Devils will be at the UW-Stevens Point Tournament this weekend and will meet North Point University, the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Millikin University.