RIVER FALLS, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) - The Falcons extended their win streak to three games by defeating Grinnell in three sets and Wartburg in four sets on Saturday. The first set against Grinnell swung back and forth until Anna Elfstrum recorded a kill to make it 15-12 in UW-River Falls' favor. Kills from Savannah Brauer, Hannah Striggow and Dakotah Poitra aided the Falcons in going up 22-17, and three errors from Grinnell in the closing points gave UWRF a 25-19 win in the first set. 

The second set was tightly contested at 7-7 before two kills from Grinnell's Hannah Taylor gave the Pioneers an advantage they would keep until kills from Hailey Huseth, Poitra and Brauer put the Falcons up 16-15 on the Pioneers. A kill and service ace from Corynne Dahl eventually put UWRF ahead 23-20, and Elfstrum and Mallory Griffin closed out the set with a block to take the second set at 25-21. The Falcons had eight blocks against Grinnell, with Elfstrum accounting for five of them.

Kills from Huseth and Brauer were followed by two bad sets from Julianna Roth to put UWRF ahead 6-3. The Falcons went on runs of four consecutive points and six consecutive points to pull out a huge lead at 16-5. Five kills and three service aces built the lead in a set that saw the Falcons hit 12 kills and commit only two attacking errors for a .270 hitting percentage. The Pioneers battled back to make the third set competitive, but Dahl had two kills to close out the match at 22-15 in the final set. 

Poitra led the team with 10 kills as Striggow had three of the team's eight service aces. Hannah Taylor had 14 kills for the Pioneers, and Madison Smith had a game-high 25 digs. Julianna Roth had 28 assists, which was more than Griffin and Huseth had combined. 

Game two against Wartburg saw the Falcons trail early by four points before two Poitra kills cut the deficit to 9-8. UWRF won six out of seven points after the game was tied at 11, which was finished off by a block from Karli Nielsen and Brauer. Two Nielsen kills, a Griffin service ace and an additonal kill from Striggow gave the Falcons a commanding 21-15 lead. However, the Knights stormed back to go ahead 22-21 after winning seven consecutive points. Nielsen's fifth kill of the set kept the Falcons in the game, but seven kills from Wartburg's Lizzy Blough in the first set helped them tie the game up at 26-26. A kill from Brauer and a clutch service ace from Maggie Baker helped clinch an intense first set at 28-26 for UWRF.

A kill and two service aces from Huseth helped spark a run that saw the Falcons go up 14-7 in the second set. Striggow added an ace after two attacking errors from the Knight to extend the lead to 20-14, and Nielsen and Poitra continued to record kills at important moments to keep the Falcons ahead. A kill from Nielsen off of a Huseth assist sealed the second set at 25-23 in UWRF's favor. The Falcons only had one more kill than the Knights in set two (15-14) and both committed four attacking errors. 

The Falcons committed 10 attacking errors in set number three, which gave Warburg they advantage they needed to take a set off the Falcons. UWRF led 6-4 after going on a 5-0 run on kills from Baker, Brauer and Striggow. They maintained in contention until three straight errors gave the Knights an 18-17 lead, which they quickly took back with their own 3-0 run. UWRF led 21-20 until a kill and two blocks from Dani Johnson gave the Knights a 23-21 advantage that Hanna Halverson closed out with a service ace to take the third set 25-22. 

Another 5-0 run put the Falcons up 8-6 in the fourth set before Wartburg went on their own 5-0 run in the middle of the set. Two aces from Mallary Erbes and a kill from Kylie Bildstein helped put the Knights up 14-12. UWRF won five of the next six points on four kills to up 17-15 and followed with a 6-0 run with two Striggow kills to go up 23-17. The Falcons were efficient in the final set by only recording two attacking errors and registering 13 kills. Wartburg brought it close at 24-21, but a service error from Dana Baumann gave the Falcons the victory.

Nielsen and Blough each led their teams with 15 kills, and Hannah Robb had a game-high 28 digs. Erbes had a game-high 45 assists for the Knights, and Johnson led Wartburg with five blocks.

Poitra currently leads the team with 208 kills, followed by Striggow with 172. Griffin and Huseth both have over 300 assists, and Robb leads the team with 367 digs. UWRF is now 10-8 after going 3-1 at the Cornell Invitational. They return to WIAC play on Wednesday when they travel to UW-La Crosse to play at 7 p.m.