PLATTEVILLE, Wis. - An energized and supportive crowd of 1,094 showed up at Williams Fieldhouse on Wednesday and helped University of Wisconsin-Platteville (14-7) in their defeat of the Ashford University volleyball team, 1-3.
The Saints fell to 16-11 on the season in the non-conference showdown by scores of 22-25, 23-25, 25-18 and 13-25.
The date with the Pioneers was one that AU Head Coach Micah Cewe had penciled in from the very beginning when the schedule was released.
"It was an awesome environment and we knew going in that it was going to be crazy," Cewe commented afterwards. "Our girls kept the crowd quiet most of the time and we fed off of it, but when they got a kill, the place erupted."
"I don't think we were bothered by the crowd noise because we did simulations in practice and told our players what they were going into," he added. "We played a great three games. We got down big in the second set and battled back and the first set was even before Platteville pulled away. In game three, we put games one and two together and played a complete game. Game four kind of slipped away from us."
Junior Allison Uceda of Lima, Peru, sparked Ashford's offensive attack with 13 kills. The Saints battled back from a large deficit in the second set to take the Pioneers to the brink of defeat in an attempt to shift momentum.
AU outblocked the Pioneers 8-7 led by five assisted blocks by juniors Kelsay McCausland of Camanche and Hanna Bruns of La Porte City. The Saints hit well in the third set (.324) before struggling to a .000 hitting percentage in the decisive game, negating six kills with six errors on 25 attempts.
Wisconsin-Platteville has upset several nationally rated teams in the NCAA Div. I ranks this season, their last surprise a four-set win over No. 7 Hope over the weekend at the Illinois Wesleyan Tournament.
According to UWP Sports Information Director Paul Erickson, the annual Homecoming Yell Contest draws out over 1,000 students each year and has become the most-attended NCAA Div. III regular-season match in eight of the past nine seasons.
Over half the crowd in attendance were members of student groups who compete for "Spirit" points towards the overall Homecoming Championship. Erickson said that most of the students come in wearing costumes and body paint in an attempt to impress a panel of judges.
The Saints travel to Dubuque on Friday and Saturday for the Clarke College Tournament.
On the docket for Friday is a 4 p.m. matchup with host Clarke and 6 p.m. follow-up against Mid-America Nazarene University. Saturday features matches against Cardinal Stritch University at noon and Cornerstone University at 2 p.m.
