RIVER FALLS, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) - UW-River Falls lost its first game in WIAC play to UW-Eau Claire at Page Arena on Wednesday night. The Blugolds took the win in straight sets 25-13, 25-19, 25-17, and the Falcons dropped their fifth-straight game at home.

The Blugolds took an early 4-1 advantage in the first set before kills from Karli Nielsen and Dakotah Poitra kept the game within reach at 9-8. Savannah Brauer and Hannah Striggow also recorded kills in the first set, but UW-Eau Claire began to run away with the set after an Arianna Barrett service error made it 13-11. The Blugolds won 12 of the last 14 points and five different players recorded kills. Krista Meyer sealed the first set after an assist from Madison Surprise, who had a game-high 29 assists. That was eight more assists than the entire UWRF team recorded.

The Falcons were more competitive in the second set, and Corynne Dahl came up with a big kill to make it 9-8 for the second consecutive set. Errors began to pile up for UWRF in the second set, but kills from Nielsen and a service ace from Hannah Robb helped the Falcons get back into the game at 17-15. The Blugolds took the next four points before kills from Poitra and Brauer made it anyone's game at 21-18. UW-Eau Claire closed out the set again in impressive fashion by taking four of the last five points and finishing the second set on a Barrett kill.

The third set saw UWRF take one of its few leads of the night at 5-3 after a Striggow kill. The Blugolds went on small run and held a slim one to two-point lead for the first half of the set. UW-Eau Claire continued to rattle off four points at a time, which was aided by two Abby Volk kills and two errors from the Falcons. The Blugolds committed more errors than the Falcons in the third set and still managed to come out on top when Madelyn Pashibin finished the match off with two of her eight kills to give UW-Eau Claire their first win in WIAC play.

Striggow led the Falcons with six kills, while Robb had a team-high 14 digs. Taylor Scalia had a game-high 15 digs for the Blugolds as they held a 16-kill advantage on UWRF. The Falcons only held a 3-2 advantage in blocks. The loss moves UWRF to 7-7 overall and 0-1 in conference. They will play at the Cornell Invitational this weekend with games against Nebraska Wesleyan and Cornell set for 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Friday.