RIVER FALLS, Wis. – The UW-Superior volleyball team split on the second day of the Falcon Invitational Saturday, outlasting St. Catherine in five sets before falling in three to tournament-host UW-River Falls.
 
Against St. Catherine, the Yellowjackets battled back from a two-set deficit to earn their first five-set victory of the season in four tries. UWS (6-8) took the match by scores of 29-31, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18 and 15-11.
 
Superior had three players tally double-digit kills, led by Cami Sletta (Willmar, Minn./Willmar Senior), with a match-high 17 on 38 total attacks for a .289 efficiency. Brylee Colligan (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji) registered 14 kills and Hannah Goggleye (Calumet, Minn./Greenway) added 11. Cassy Teff (Foley, Minn./Foley) handed out a team-best 26 assists, while Megan Holz (Savage, Minn./Burnsville) picked up 20. Teff and Payton Scherber (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville Senior) tied for a team-high seven digs.
 
A tight match throughout, there were 23 ties and nine lead changes. The Wildcats outhit UWS, .245-.211 for the match, but the 'Jackets attack rose to .295 in the final three sets.
 
Down, 5-2, in the third set, Sletta, Goggleye and Teah Roszkowiak (Pleasant Prairie, Wis./Tremper) each downed kills to pull even at 5-5. Later, tied at 11-11, five straight points by Superior, punctuated by a Roszkowiak kill, gave it a 16-11 edge. A block by Goggleye opened the largest lead of the set, 18-12. SCU clawed all the way back to 22-22, but the 'Jackets won the final three points – on a Colligan kill and two errors – to extended the match. 
 
Sletta gave her team a 7-2 advantage in the fourth on a block. The lead grew to 17-8 on the last of three consecutive points for UWS. Gina Baertsch (Farmington, Minn./Farmington Area) had a kill in the stretch, followed by two St. Catherine attack errors. The 'Jackets cruised the rest of the way in the set, ending it with another Baertsch kill to level the match, 2-2.
 
Superior won 10 of the final 14 points in the deciding set. UWS took four straight points to take the lead for good at 9-7. Colligan had three consecutive kills in the spurt. Colligan, then, put it away with a kill – another of her five in the set.
 
Erin Cutts paced St. Catherine, which fell to 7-3 in the loss, with 14 kills.
 
Sletta had a match-high 16 kills on 31 attacks for a .355 percentage versus UWRF. She added three digs and a block for the 'Jackets, who were held to hitting .152 as a team. The Falcons won the match, 25-15, 25-16 and 25-21.
 
River Falls won 11 of the first 15 points of the match and never looked back. The Falcons opened took an eight-point lead midway through the second set at 18-10 on the way to a two-set edge. 
 
The third set was tighter, with three ties and three lead changes. UWRF took the lead for good with a service ace from Hailey Huseth to make it 20-19. Dakotah Poitra nailed down the match with a kill from Huseth for the win.
 
Katie Koerper registered 11 kills to go along with five digs for the Falcons, who improved to 9-3 on the year.
 
Superior returns to action next Saturday against St. Catherine at Mertz Mortorelli Gym. First serve is slated for 6 p.m.