The Eau Claire volleyball team will advance to the WIAC semifinals, thanks to a 3-1 win over UW-Superior Tuesday night.

The Yellowjackets got things started early in the first game, putting the Blugolds behind 5-1. Eau Claire retaliated and pulled within three before scoring eight unanswered points to take an 11-6 lead.

Superior put together a run of its own and knotted the game up at 18-18. Both teams traded points back and forth, but the Blugolds earned a narrow 30-28 win after the Yellowjackets missed a costly serve.

“In practice we’ve been focusing on their strengths,” sophomore Cassie Hunt said. “We imitated them so we were prepared to play them.”

In Game 2, the Blugolds again fell into a hole as the Yellowjackets jumped out to an 8-4 lead. Eau Claire again came back and tied the score up at 18-18. This time, however, the Blugolds could not gain the lead, and Superior won the game 30-27.

It looked as though it would be the same story in Game 3, with the Blugolds falling behind the Yellowjackets once again. Eau Claire was able to tie the score up at 13-13 and then pull ahead. Eau Claire out-hit the Yellowjackets .237 to .158 and won the game 30-26 – the largest margin of victory on the night.

“There wasn’t one point where I thought, ‘We have Superior beat,'” coach Kim Wudi said. “They just kept on fighting back. We got some senior leadership. I called all three out and told them, ‘This is your match to win or lose.’ All three needed to step up and be at their best.”

Eau Claire came out strong in Game 4, taking an early lead for the first time in the match. Superior came back to tie up the game, but couldn’t hold on. Eau Claire pulled ahead 29-25, and after the Yellowjackets scored three successive points, the Blugolds finally got the winning hit to win the game 30-28.

“We knew we needed to end it,” Hunt said. “We didn’t want it to go to five games, we wanted to move on.”

And move on they will. Screams of astonishment echoed throughout the gymnasium as the team learned that seventh-seeded UW-Platteville stunned second-seeded UW-Oshkosh in a four-game match Tuesday night.

That means Eau Claire will take on Platteville Friday night at 5 p.m. in the semifinals match at UW-Whitewater. Whitewater, which hosts the semifinals, will take on UW-La Crosse at 7:30 p.m.

The championship match will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, with the consolation match at noon. The tournament winner will get an automatic bid into the NCAA Div. III playoffs.