On a record-setting night, UW-Eau Claire volleyball defeated the top-ranked team in the country, the UW-Whitewater Warhawks, in five sets for the first time since 2021.
On Sept. 21, 2,134 people were in attendance at The Sonnentag Center for Chippewa Valley Night, where admission was free for the public.
This total is the highest recorded attendance for an athletic event played in Sonnentag since its opening just over a year ago. No.14-ranked Blugolds came into the match as winners of their last 10 games.
Their opponent entered the match 10-0 on the season, losing just five out of 35 sets. According to Blugold’s head coach Kim Wudi, one of the gameplans for the team was to try and control the Warhawk’s middle attack led by All-American middle hitter Abbie Dix.
“We wanted to make sure we defended that well,” Wudi said. “We wanted to make sure that if we defended our middles, we didn’t have a lot of other hitters being able to go and have a career high.”
For the first WIAC matchup for both teams on the season, Whitewater got on the board first off a service ace from Kyanne Wusterbarth.
After a kill by Whitewater’s Emma Bludgen that tied the score 9-9, the Warhawks scored five unanswered points, prompting the Blugolds to call a timeout. After a service error committed by the Blugolds, the Warhawks were up 21-15, four points away from a first set victory.
An attack error by the Warhawks gave the Blugolds their 16th point of the match. It was followed by six unanswered scores by the Blugolds, who had four kills during the run. After back-and-forth action, the score was tied 25-25.
Kills from fourth-year outside hitters Bailey Leeke and third-year Mya Cinnamo, secured the Blugolds a first-set win. Leeke had seven of the Blugolds 13 first set kills and a team high of 25 kills in the game.
Leeke credited first-year setter Alex Kiebel for the kills, whose back-to-back sets led to the last two points of the opening match.
“Kiebel had a phenomenal game herself,” Leeke said. “She really set me up in (the) right positions to help me put the ball away.”
The start of the second set was similar to the first one, as the score was tied 10-10 in the first 20 points of the set. Five unanswered points by the Blugolds propelled them to a 15-10 lead, but Whitewater was able to get back in contention by two points, making the score 17-15.
The Warhawks couldn’t manage to get on the board again after that, surrendering eight Blugold scores in a row, en route to a 25-15 second set win for the Blugolds. Entering this game, the Warhawks had only lost the first two sets of a match once on the season.
Leeke was active early on for the Blugolds in the third set, notching five kills in the first 12 Blugold points. A kill by the Warhawk’s Amanda Hillmann later in the set brought the score to a 16-16 tie.
Later on, five attack errors committed by the Blugolds and five kills from the Warhawks propelled Whitewater to a 25-23 third-set win. The Warhawks committed two errors in the set, whereas they had 14 combined errors in the first two sets.
Blugold’s 16 kills in the third set tied for the most in a set, but their nine errors and Warhawk’s 11 kills were too much to overcome.
For the second time in the match, the Warhawks were the first team to 10 points in the fourth set and led the Blugolds 11-7. Despite the Blugolds bringing the score within one at 21-20, the Warhawks never lost their lead, winning the match 25-20 to force a final set.
The Warhawks’ 13 kills tied for the most kills in a set as five different Warhawks recorded a kill.
Through the third and fourth set, Wudi thought her team played more conservatively than the previous two sets.
“We were making some errors that I thought were conservative errors instead of bold or courageous errors,” Wudi said.
The Blugolds committed 16 errors in the third and fourth set which doubled their seven errors committed in the first two sets.
Heading into the last set, the message from Wudi to her team was to play together.
“Sometimes when the pressure gets high, each person tends to really become internal and start thinking about their own game and what they might be able to do to contribute,” Wudi said. “One of the things I focused on and I wanted our team to remember is that nobody can do it alone.”
To start the fifth set, the Blugolds scored the first five points of the set, receiving kills from three different players. Four attack errors in a row from the Warhawks kept the Blugolds up 11-3, and that proved to be too much for the Warhawks as the Blugolds won the set 15-11.
The Warhawks last season defeated the Blugolds twice and knocked them out of the playoffs in the second round, in three sets. The Blugolds didn’t let last year’s results dictate how they trained for the match.
“We try to really focus on what we can work on in the gym,” Leeke said. “It really comes down to how we play the game and we don’t let the other team dictate that.”
Friday’s win for the Blugolds gave the team’s six fourth-year players their first career win over Whitewater as the Blugolds hadn’t beaten the Warhawks since 2021.
“I really wanted our seniors to be able to have an opportunity to beat Whitewater,” Wudi said. “That was very special for them to get that at home.”
Now with the Blugold’s winning streak at 11 games and coming off the most attended volleyball game in program history, the team will host UW-La Crosse at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept 24 at The Sonnentag.
Benes can be reached at [email protected].
