The UW-River Falls women's volleyball team dropped its opening game of the 2014 UW-River Falls Tournament, 3-2, at hands of the Bethel University Royals on Saturday morning in the Karges Center.
The five-set match was highly contested from the opening serve. The Royals won sets one, three and five. UWRF let set three slip away, which proved to be an important win for the Royals.
The Royals took the first set 25-19 after leading much of the way. Bethel was magnificent at the net, blocking shot after shot. Falcons junior
Rebecca Gasper had a strong set with five kills. Gasper was the Falcons' best player in the match. After leading 10-9, the Royals went on a 12-5 run to push the Bethel lead to 22-14. The only Falcon lead was at 3-2. Unforced errors and multiple Gasper kills helped UWRF climb back into the set, down just five at 23-18, but the Falcons were unable to overcome the large deficit.
The Falcons bounced back to win the second set 25-22 with multiple mini-runs. UWRF never trailed after taking a 12-11 lead midway through the set. Gasper had another strong set with three kills and two blocks that led to five UWRF points. The pivotal point of the set was a 6-2 run for the Falcons after a 10-10 tie; Gasper had three kills in that stretch. The Royals committed a few too many unforced errors on serves throughout the set. Falcons sophomore
Raven Klein, sophomore
Hali Tasler and junior
Brianna Muetzel also had a strong set. Klein made several strong digs and blocks, while Muetzel had three key kills. The Royals led six times early in the set, but were eventually overmatched by the Falcon killers up front.
Bethel won the third game 25-22 after winning eight of the last 10 points. The Royals trailed 20-17 after UWRF won four straight points in a highly contested set, but Bethel cleaned up its service game late. Unforced errors were a theme for both teams in the third as time and time again serves failed to reach the opponent. Gasper and Muetzel each had four more kills in the set. Junior
Lexi Pingel's ace to put the Falcons ahead 19-17 seemed to the turn the tide, but the Royals wouldn't say "die."
UWRF tied the match at two with a 25-21 fourth-set win. The Falcons only trailed at 1-2 and 2-3 in route to the victory. Junior
Lisa Keppers had her best set of the match with three kills and two blocks leading to five UWRF points. Gasper had another three kills and the set-winning block with the score at 24-21. Bethel continued to struggle on serves with numerous unforced errors, especially late in the set. UWRF led by as many as five at 12-7 and 14-9. Bethel went on a 6-2 run to cut the lead to one at 16-15, but the Falcons used two three-point runs to push the lead back to four.
The Royals finished the match with a 15-11 fifth-set victory after winning five of the last six points, including the last four. The two teams were tied at 10 before the late Royals run. Muetzel and Keppers were strong early in the set with multiple points each.
Gasper led the Falcons with 15 kills and four blocks. Klein had 35 of the 38 UWRF assists, one ace and three blocks. Muetzel and sophomore
Michaela Piechowski led the Falcons with nine digs each; Pingel finished with eight. Junior
Molly Monahan, who had one of her better efforts of the season, finished with eight kills.
Sophomore Tegan LeBerge led the Royals with 19 kills and five blocks. Freshman Maddison Messner led both teams with 22 digs. Sophomore Katie Lubben had a mammoth 59 assists.
UWRF drops to 9-13 overall, 3-2 at home, and have not won since a Oct. 3 victory over Coe College. Bethel improves to 15-7 overall, 3-3 on the road, and snapped its two-game losing streak (two straight MIAC shutouts).
On an interesting note: fans and players sang the national anthem due to a technical malfunction. Also, the round-robin tournament was originally scheduled to be eight teams, but whittled down to three due to a UWRF campus threat announced by campus police. Fans were in good spirits for the match, regardless.
The Falcons cap off the 2014 UW-River Falls Tournament against the UW-Stout Blue Devils at 2 p.m. today in the Karges Center.
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