SUPERIOR, Wis. -- The UW-Superior volleyball team earned its first-ever trip to the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship match with a five-set victory over Minnesota Morris on Wednesday at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium.
 
The Yellowjackets (16-12) won, 19-25, 25-15, 25-22, 23-25, 16-14, and will face fifth-ranked Northwestern in the conference championship Saturday at 7 p.m., at the Ericksen Center.
 
Senior Cassy Teff (Foley, Minn./Foley) paced UWS in her final home match with 16 kills, 25 assists and 13 digs while classmate Alexie Pryd (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove Senior) had a match-high 17 kills and 21 digs. Junior Kaylin Plautz (Elk River, Minn./Elk River) and sophomore Maiana Stark (Germantown, Wis./Germantown) had 14 and 13 kills, respectively. Sophomore Jenna Anderson (Bemidji, Minn./Bemidji) tallied 26 digs to lead the defensive effort.
 
With the match knotted at 1-1, the Yellowjackets erased an early Minnesota Morris lead in the third set with a 7-0 run to take an 11-8 advantage. Following a point for the Cougars point, UWS scored four more in a row to make it 11-9 after which the Cougars responded with five consecutive for a 14-14 tie. The teams traded points to 20-20 with the 'Jackets winning five straight to take a 24-20 edge on a block by freshman Ella Kapus (Ham Lake, Minn./Blaine). The Cougars fought off two set points, but junior Kielan LaPlante (Chatfield, Minn./Chatfield) and Kapus teamed up for a block to win the set for Superior.
 
UWS held a 22-20 lead in the fourth set only to have Minnesota Morris come storming back to force a deciding fifth stanza. The Cougars closed the fourth with five of the final six points, finishing it with a kill from Mary Cate Ziembiec.
 
The 'Jackets took the first three points in the fifth on kills from Stark and Plautz as well as block by Plautz, prompting a Minnesota Morris timeout. UWS won the next four points out of that break, extending the lead to 7-0, before Morris rallied to cut its deficit to 12-10. The Cougars later tied the set at 14-14 but UWS got an attack error by Ziembiecand a Teff kill to seal the victory.
 
Minnesota Morris, which received a team-best 16 kills from Anna Molstad and match-high 27 digs from Alyssa Ukestad, saw its season end with a 13-13 overall record.