MENOMONIE, Wis. – The UW-Stout Blue Devil volleyball team opened the conference season with three-set win over UW-Platteville Friday night in the Johnson Fieldhouse.
The Blue Devils (7-4, 1-0) swept (25-21, 25-20, 25-23) UW-Platteville (10-2, 0-1). Stout forced the Pioneers, who were receiving votes in the latest top-25 poll, into 25 attacking errors and just a .071 hitting percentage.
Stout scored the first two points of the match, but Platteville stormed back, scoring 10 of the next 13 points to take a 10-5 lead. Trailing 16-10, Stout got a kill from
Kyra Giffen and A block from
Brynn Hessel and
Kennedy Barrett to spark a mini rally to pull with two points at 16-14.
Sloan Horgan kept Stout within two at 19-17 with her fourth kill of the set. That sparked an 8-0 run for the Blue Devils that included two more Horgan kills and three Barton blocks, two of which Horgan assisted on. A Pioneer service error game Stout the 25-21 win.
Horgan put down six of her game-high 13 kills in the opening set and Barton had three of her game-high seven blocks.
A kill by
Brooke McCune stopped an early 3-0 run by the Pioneers to start the second set. Another block by Horgan and Barton and an ace by Barrett tied the match at four. The teams traded points, with neither side being able to hold more than two-point advantage until a block by McCune and Barton gave the Blue Devils a 17-13 edge. Stout held on and two pioneer attacking errors gave Stout the 2-0 lead with the 25-20 win.
The third set saw 15 ties and nine lead changes. Neither team held a lead of more than two points until Platteville took a 20-17 lead. Back-to-back kills by Giffen gave Stout a 22-21 edge. The Pioneers scored the next two points to take the lead back at 23-22. Giffen recorded another kill and
Kourtney Wollner service ace, set up match point for the Blue Devils McCune's attack wasn't controlled by Platteville and Stout took the set 25-23 and started conference play 1-0.
McCune finished with seven kills and two blocks,
Terrah Moshier totaled 10 digs and Hessel hit .500 with four kills.
Kennedy Barrett had 26 assists and now has 1,990 in her career.
Up Next
The Blue Devils will travel Stevens Point, Wis. on Wednesday, Sept. 25 to face the Pointers. First serve from Berg Gym is set for 7 p.m.
