MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris volleyball team fell to the University of Wisconsin-Superior, 3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 15-25, 17-25), in the semifinals of the UMAC Tournament on Wednesday night at James Gremmels Court. The Cougars close the year with an overall record of 20-8.

Six straight points from UW-Superior early on in the first set gave the visitors a 9-3 lead and the Yellowjackets maintained that advantage the rest of the way. At 24-19, Minnesota Morris fought off four straight set points and forced UW-Superior to use both of its timeouts before the Yellowjackets finally got the job done and took a 1-0 lead on the night.

The second set was more in line with what the Cougar faithful thought they would see on the night. Trailing 8-6, Minnesota Morris reeled off four straight with kills from Laura Wellbrock and Lacie O'Leary, plus a block from Tori Scheler and Lydia Nash. The Cougars would hold onto the lead the rest of the way. At 16-13, UMN Morris scored another six straight, with a kill and two block assists from Scheler. Nash finished the set off with two kills to even the proceedings up at 1-1.

The final two sets would play out much the same way. An early UW-Superior lead in each frame zapped some of the life from the crowd and the Yellowjackets would grow the advantage as the set went along. The third set was tied for the final time at 2-2 and UW-Superior had runs of four, five, and four points later on to ease to a 25-15 win. Again in the fourth set, the final tie was at 2-2 before the Yellowjackets built a 12-4 edge. Clawing back from 10 points down, Minnesota Morris drew within five points twice in the late going, but the last three points of the night went to UW-Superior as they wrapped it up.

Wellbrock ended with a team-high 15 kills on the night and had 10 digs to notch a double-double. O'Leary added 13 kills and Nash had 11 more. Newton finished with a double-double of 44 assists and 11 digs. Scheler had a solo block and six block assists on the front line for the Cougars, while Ava Brunn led the back line with 36 digs. Sydney Eckhoff added 24 digs, with 14 more from Mary Cate Ziembiec.

UW-Superior advances to the UMAC championship match at No. 1 seed University of Northwestern on Saturday night at 7 p.m. in St. Paul.