The Falcon volleyball team finished a tough weekend on Saturday, as they lost their second consecutive WIAC contest falling to UW-La Crosse 3-1 (25-23, 25-19, 16-25, 25-16) on Saturday afternoon at the Karges Center.
Over the past decade, this series has been anything but predictable. The Eagles and Falcons have squared off 16 times this century, with the Eagles holding the edge 9-7. Surprisingly, these matches have typically been one sided. On just one occasion has a match made it to the decisive fifth set and nine times the teams shook hands after a 3-set-sweep.
Saturday's match was no different. La Crosse cruised to a 3-1 conference victory as the Falcons hit a dismal .098 for the contest. This marks the worst offensive performance of the Falcons for the season and the first time hitting under .100 since last year at Platteville.
The magic number this year has been .200 for the Falcons. In matches hitting .200 or above the Falcons show a record of 5-1. Consequently, when hitting below .200, they have posted a 1-5 mark.
In the first set, the Falcons jumped to a 22-17 lead before watching the Eagles land seven straight points. River Falls fought off one set point before handing the crucial first set to the visitors 25-23.
The momentum stayed with the Eagles as they scored the first six points in set two. The Eagles never looked back taking the second set 25-19 as the Falcons hit .029 with seven attack errors.
River Falls put it together in the third set opening up a 5-1 lead and never allowing the Eagles to get within four points the remainder of the set. The Falcons avoided a sweep by taking the third set 25-16.
The fourth set was eerily similar to the second. La Crosse jumped to a big lead as the points came in every imaginable way. The first five points the Eagles scored in the set came by a Falcon error. In all, the Falcons committed 26 attack errors, 11 service errors, three reception errors and a ball handling blunder. River Falls was unable to make up for the early mistakes, dropping the fourth set 25-16 and falling to 0-2 in the WIAC.
The story of the afternoon was the outstanding play of the La Crosse defense. Senior Melanie Tate put on a show at the libero position racking up 19 of her team's 61 digs. Tate ranks fourth all-time at her respective school in digs with over 1,700 in her career.
River Falls has been playing outstanding defense early in the season. As of Monday, the Falcons lead the WIAC in team digs and rank second in blocks. The defense put up another fine showing grabbing 49 digs and 6.5 blocks in the four-set match.
Once again, Erin Green (Fridley, MN, Fridley) led the way up front with two solo blocks and two block assists. Green's 1.12 blocks per set currently ranks second in the WIAC. Green also posted 13 kills and two aces on Saturday.
The main star offensively was freshman, Jean Theis (Shakopee, MN, Shakopee). As the only Falcon to hit over .200, Thies put up a career best 13 kills and hit .258. Mackenzie Suda (Ham Lake, MN, Blaine) and Hayley Buchanan (Eden Prairie, MN, Eden Prairie) were the two to get things started once again combining for 37 of the 39 assists.
The lone senior in the starting lineup, Sami Kaminski (Weyerhaeuser, WI, Weyerhaeuser)put together another solid performance as she lead the Falcons with 13 digs, added six kills and an ace.
Up next, the Falcons travel to Menomonie to tangle with UW-Stout on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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