Box Score

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside volleyball team fought off numerous set points on Friday night to earn a critical 3-1 victory (19-25, 32-30, 26-24, 27-25) over Bellarmine University in Louisville. The Rangers faced multiple set points in all three games they eventually won to improve to 9-3 in GLVC play and clinch at least a .500 record in league play.

“We made some big defensive tonight plays when we were down,” said head coach Christine Paciero. “Our blocking and serving was definitely a huge key for us. It was a big, big win.”

The Rangers recorded a season-high 15.0 blocks led by freshman Brooke Schowalter who registered a career-best with ten. And just two nights after committing 19 service errors, the Rangers matched a season-low with six against the Knights.

Addie Kramer had 15 kills with her final swing ending the match. It also gave her exactly 1,100 kills in her career leaving her one behind Lindsey Jones for third on the school's all-time list. Bridget Nickel had 11 kills with many coming in the waning moments of the come-from-behind sets.

Stacie Bower and Caroline Langer were both key defensively. Bower led with 21 digs and Langer was right behind her with 18.

“Addie and Bridget both had big nights for us (offensively),” said Paciero. “Langer and Bower were stellar defensively.”

Bellarmine controlled the majority of the first set in getting out to a 1-0 lead for the match. They jumped out to a 13-5 lead in the game and the Rangers could get no closer than three the rest of the set.

Parkside led for much of the second set, including a 19-15 lead, before the Knights stormed back and threatened to seize control of the match.

The Rangers had five opportunities at set point before Bellarmine turned the tables and earned two set points of their own at 29-28 and 30-29. But the Rangers benefited from a service error and two attack errors for the 32-30 win to even things at one.

The third set provided enough drama for an entire match as the Rangers pulled off an improbable comeback. First, they scored five straight points to turn a 20-15 deficit into a 20-20 deadlock. Then the Knights responded with four straight points to make it 24-20 and put Parkside on the brink.

But Cassy Marx started the rally with a kill, Nickel added two more and then combined with Schowalter for a block to tie it at 24-24. With Courtney Stack still serving, Kramer pounded how consecutive kills to complete a six-point run and give Parkside a 2-1 lead in the match.

The fourth and final set played out almost identically as the Knights held a 24-21 lead but couldn't close out the visitors. Nickel had started it with kill and again teamed with Schowalter for a pair of blocks to make it 24-24.

After a Ranger blocking error gave the Knights another set point, Marx tied it at 25 with another big kill. Parkside then finished things out on a quick kill by Stack and the exclamation point from Kramer to complete the improbable comeback.

The Rangers are now 13-11 overall and have a five game cushion with six to go in their pursuit of a berth in the GLVC Tournament. UW-Parkside has not qualified for the conference's postseason event since 2003.

The team will now head to Northern Kentucky for a 2:00 p.m. start against the 12th-ranked Norse on Saturday. The Rangers upset NKU at Parkside earlier this season.