The Pioneers volleyball team pushed through to a 3-1 record during the six-game UW-Platteville Invitational on Sept. 25-26. St. Norbert College, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout, Simpson College and Loras College traveled to UW-P to compete.

Photograph by Tyler Stieber
Senior Lisa Bell, left, and freshman Melanie Bailiff blocked the Blue Devils on Sept. 26. UW-P beat Stout in four sets.

Senior middle hitter Lisa Bell set her own personal record during the victory over St. Norbert on the first day of the invitational. Bell completed nine solo blocks during the first two sets, smashing the school record of eight set by Tracy James in 1990.

The Pioneers beat St. Norbert 25-20, 25-21, 25-23 in the UW-P invite opener.

Junior Mellissa Hillebrand, alongside sophomore Briana Kaiser, had nine kills against St. Norbert. Freshman Amanda Fisch had seven kills.

Simpson was the Pioneers only loss, 17-25, 23-25, 20-25 following the opening victory over St. Norbert. UW-P went on to stop both Loras, 25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 25-18, and UW-O, 25-14, 9-25, 25-15, 25-15.

Kaiser had 15 kills in the victory over the Loras Duhawks,  Hillebrand had 14 and freshman Samantha Rampart had 12.

“The weekend went pretty well. We’re still working things out but everythings starting to come together,” Hillebrand said.

“Our consistency on offense and passing are improving,” Head Coach Deb Schulman said. “We did film work and a teaching during the week and it paid off over the weekend.”

The youth of the team showed in the passing in previous games, Schulman said. As the season has continued, the team has been more structured and consistent with their passing.

“Everyone’s starting to step up, there are always little things like passing and blocking but we have improved,” Bell said.

The Pioneers will head to Illinois Wesleyan on Friday, Oct. 2-3 for a tournament featuring the top-ranked school, Hope College.

“We have to come out and play intense and not have the slow start we’ve had before,” Bell said. “We match other team’s intensity, but we need to come out strong from the start.”

UW-P has a record of 8-6 as they look ahead to the Illinois Wesleyan Tournament. The Pioneers will face off against Milikin University to start the tournament. The Big Blues are at a 13-5 overall record going into the tournament.