RIVER FALLS, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) - UW-River Falls ended a six-game losing streak on Friday night when they defeated Cornell College in four sets after losing to Nebraska Wesleyan earlier in the afternoon at the Cornell Invitational. 

Cornell got up 4-1 in the opening set before the Falcons fought back to take an 8-7 lead after a Karli Nielsen kill. UWRF went on a 3-0 run to go up 17-12 and took their biggest lead of the set at 23-17 after three-straight attack errors by the Rams. However, Cornell worked right back into the game at 23-22, which was aided by three kills from Alicia Phillips. Dakotah Poitra took over to close out the set with a kill and service ace to give the Falcons a 25-22 win.

The Rams went on a huge run to begin the second set up 14-5, but Poitra and Nielsen each recorded kills to make it 14-9. Poitra's six kills in the set kept the Falcons alive, but both teams trading points down the stretch was an advantage for Cornell as a ball handling error by Poitra gave the Rams a 25-21 win in the second set. The Falcons made far fewer errors in the third set and recorded 15 kills to only four errors. They went up 9-6 in the third, but Cornell came racing back for seven straight points. The majority of those points came from UWRF errors, which was quickly turned around when the Falcons went up 15-14 off of a Hannah Striggow kill. Numerous Nielsen and Poitra kills were necessary to set up a kill from Hailey Huseth and a service ace from Julianne Waugh to close out the third set at 25-22. 

The final set also showcased the Falcons hitting at a high percentage. Mallory Griffin served three consecutive service aces in the fourth set to give UWRF an 11-5 advantage, which quickly grew to 15-8 after two Poitra kills. Cornell went on a stretch of winning four-straight points before the Falcons took five-straight points of their own. Three attack errors and two Striggow kills set the table for a 23-17 advantage, which was closed out by Nielsen on her ninth kill of the night at 25-19. Poitra had a game-high 15 kills and tied with Hannah Robb and Griffin for a team-high 17 kills. Corynne Dahl also impressed with five blocks. 

Dahl started off the match against Nebraska Wesleyan with a kill before the Prairie Wolves took an 8-2 lead in the opening set. Two kills from Hannah Bellinghausen later increased the lead to eight points at 13-5, and the Falcons had their biggest deficit at 16-8 in the first set. Waugh responded with a kill in her first start of the season as UWRF went on a 10-5 run to cut Nebraska Wesleyan's lead to 21-18. Abby Peterson, Striggow and Waugh provided more kills to create the three point deficit, but the Prairie Wolves won four of the final five points to take the first set 25-19. Bellinghausen and Callie Kohl recorded kills before Cora Svoboda clinched the opening set with one of her team-high nine kills. Both teams had 11 kills in the first set, but Nebraska Wesleyan committed six fewer attacking errors.

The beginning of the second set was much more competitive with both teams tied up at 10-10. The two teams followed this up by each going on stretches of winning four of the next five points, leading to a deadlocked set at 15-15. A kill from Robb and a service ace from Waugh seemed to give the Falcons the momentum before Nebraska Wesleyan took six of the next seven points to go up 21-16. UWRF battled back after a kill from Savannah Brauer and two more kills from Waugh, but Svoboda registered three more kills near the end of the second set. Cera Craven closed out the set at 25-19 with an ace as the Prairie Wolves had an impressive .261 hitting percentage on 15 kills and three attacking errors in the second set.

The final set was dominated by 12 kills and only two errors from Nebraska Wesleyan, good enough for a .370 hitting percentage. The set started off 8-5 in favor of the Prairie Wolves until they took the next four points off of two Bellinghausen kills and a service ace from Cassidy Plooster. The Falcons took two more points back before Nebraska Wesleyan scored 13 of the final 15 points in the set to win the final set 25-9. Craven had two more aces during the final stretch, and Kierra Harder had a kill on match point. 

Waugh led the team with 11 kills while Striggow was second with nine kills. Huseth led UWRF in assists with 16, and Robb had a team-high 20 digs with Waugh in second with 16 digs. Craven had four aces and Kohl had three for Nebraska Wesleyan, and Plooster had the highest assist total with 32. 

The Falcons are now 8-8 and close out the Cornell Invitational tomorrow with matches against Grinnell at noon and Wartburg at 2 p.m.