Box Score LA CROSSE, Wis. – The University of Minnesota Morris volleyball team battled back from two sets down on Friday night, but ended with a 3-2 loss (28-30, 17-25, 25-21, 25-20, 6-15) to Augsburg University on the first night of the UW-La Crosse Invite. The loss snaps a four-match winning streak for the Cougars as they fall to 6-3 on the season.

The first set started with a 9-2 lead for Augsburg, but Minnesota Morris answered with by scoring 15 of the next 16 points to take a 17-10 edge on the Auggies. The lead grew as high as 21-12 before Augsburg tallied nine in a row to tie the set at 21-21. The Cougars would eventually have three set points, but a three-point spurt for AU tied the score at 28-28 and then Bri Van Well finished it with consecutive kills to give the Auggies a 30-28 victory.

That deflating first-set loss carried over into the second set as Augsburg took control in the middle of the set and cruised to a 25-17 win to go up, 2-0, on the Cougars.

Augsburg held a 9-5 lead in the third and were looking for the sweep when Minnesota Morris came to life. Laura Wellbrock had back-to-back kills and an Auggie attack error knotted the score at 11-11. Late in the set, with the score tied at 19-19, the Cougars finished the set off with kills from McKenzie Newton and Wellbrock, as well as four Augsburg attack errors to stay alive and take the match to a fourth set.

Again in the fourth set, Augsburg held the advantage in the early going but Minnesota Morris rallied. An Auggie service error opened the door for the Cougars to score five straight and take a 17-14 lead that was capped by a Sydney Eckhoff ace. Augsburg closed to within one at 19-18, but another five-point stretch from UMN Morris gave the team multiple set points to work with. Much of the damage was self-inflicted as Augsburg committed four straight errors before an ace from Ava Brunn. Wellbrock finished things off with a kill to make it 25-20 and force a fifth set.

The Cougars were unfortunately unable to complete the comeback. The lone tie of the fifth set was at 1-1 after a Maggie Jones kill. Augsburg then burst out to a 9-3 lead. After a Minnesota Morris timeout, the Cougars were able to cut it to 9-5 off a kill and a block from Tori Scheler, but that was as close as they would get. Augsburg scored the next five points and closed it out from there.

Wellbrock led the Cougars with 14 kills. Lydia Nash added nine and Jones tallied seven. Newton had four kills, 30 assists, and 10 digs on the night. Brunn led Minnesota Morris with 23 digs and four aces.

Minnesota Morris is back in action on Saturday with an 11 a.m. match against Simpson College and a 3 p.m. match with UW-La Crosse.