NEW ULM/ST. PAUL, Minn. – The UW-Superior volleyball team dropped a pair of matches Saturday, taking its first loss in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference play in three sets at Martin Luther before falling at St. Catherine in non-conference action in five.
 
The Yellowjackets lost to Martin Luther, 25-23, 26-24, 25-23, and 25-13, 23-25, 21-25, 25-14 and 15-7 to St. Catherine and are 4-10 overall and 2-1 in the UMAC heading into a match at Hamline Tuesday at 7 p.m.
 
Against Martin Luther, junior Alexie Pryd (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove Senior) led all players with 15 kills and added 14 digs to complete one of three double-doubles for the Yellowjackets in the match. Classmate Cassy Teff (Foley, Minn./Foley) recorded 11 assists and 11 digs and senior Megan Holz (Savage, Minn./Burnsville Senior) had 18 assists and 11 digs for the others.
 
The match against the Knights featured 18 tie scores and nine lead changes. 
 
Martin Luther (4-7, 3-0) held an 11-7 lead in the opening set, which UWS cut in half with a Holz service ace and MLC error. Two kills in the next three points gave the Knights a 14-9 advantage, which grew to 18-12 on kills by Lauren Paulsen and Kelsey Birschbach.
 
Superior fought off three set points at 24-20 with the help of an MLC error, Kielan LaPlante (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) kill and block by Jordyn O'Brien (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) and Autumn Bremness (Cadott, Wis./Cadott) block, but the Knights responded with a block of their own to close the set.
 
Tied at 12 in the middle frame, UWS benefitted from four consecutive MLC errors and a kill by O'Brien to take a 17-12 advantage. The Yellowjackets extended the lead to 20-13 with a Pryd kill, Holz ace and Knights' error before Martin Luther rallied, scoring nine straight and 11-of-12 points. 
 
The 'Jackets again staved off three set points with a kill by Teff, block by O'Brien and LaPlante and MLC error, to tie it, 24-24, but the Knights won two points later for a two-set edge.
 
UWS rallied from down, 20-17, in the third to pull even at 23-23, with the final three points coming on kills from Bremness, Jenna Anderson (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji) and Pryd. Martin Luther, though, got a kill from Birschbach and ace by Kylie to seal the match.
 
Birschbachpaced the Knights' attack with 11 kills while Wolf dished out a match-high assists.
 
Against St. Catherine, Pryd had 16 kills and 24 digs, Teff added eight kills and freshman Rilie Kupka (Eagan, Minn./Burnsville Senior) tallied seven. 
 
UWS won the second and third sets with a combined 26 kills and just 13 errors to take a 2-1 lead in the match. UWS held a 7-3 advantage in the fourth before the Wildcats engineered a 6-0 run to take control. 
 
St. Catherine (8-7) extended the lead to 14-10 and 17-12 and closed the set winning eight of the final nine to force a fifth set. 
 
The Wildcats scored the first seven points of the deciding set. Pryd cut the lead to 9-5 with a kill, but that was as close as Superior got as SCU closed the match with a kill by Lexie Petrick and Marissa Gilbertson ace.
 
Lauren Isaacson led the Wildcats with 13 kills while Gilbertson had 24 of the team's 47 assists. Petrick registered a team-high 23 digs in the win.