The Blue Devils of UW Stout outlasted the Wildcats on Wednesday night in an incredibly tight five set match. The winning margin in each set was three points or less and the Wildcats fell by the final score of 27-25, 25-27, 24-26, 26-24, 12-15. The loss dropped the Wildcats to 1-4 on the season, and the Blue Devils improved to 1-4.
Neither team was able to outdistance the other, as each set featured multiple lead changes. The Wildcats prevailed in the first set, but the Blue Devils stormed back to win the next two sets. Stout held a lead late in the fourth set, but
Stephanie Meschke came up with several huge kills to swing momentum to the Wildcats, as they came from behind to win 26-24 and force a fifth set. Stout jumped to an early lead in the fifth set, aided by a few miscues from the Wildcats. Down 9-14, the Wildcats rattled off several points in a row to bring the score to 12-14, but could not pull off the full comeback and the Blue Devils earned the victory.
In a solid defensive effort, five Wildcats had double digit dig totals, led by
Nicole Neumann with 32.
Brittni Wangerin had 14 kills and 3 aces in another strong performance. Stepping in for injured setter
Nina Lindquist,
Callie Teigen had 44 set assists and 2 aces.
The Wildcats look to rebound from this tough loss this weekend, as they travel to Emory University for the Emory Classic.
Box Score