STEVENS POINT, Wisconsin — The Ripon volleyball program played two matches on Saturday inside the Quandt Fieldhouse on the campus of UW-Stevens Point for the annual Pointers Invitational.
 
In the first match of the day, Ripon fell in three sets to Lakeland (26-24, 25-17, 25-17) before closing out the tournament with a three-set loss to Simpson (25-15, 25-19, 25-16).
 
Against Lakeland (5-8), Ripon (6-9) came out of the gate firing to the tune of a 4-0 run to open the match. Later in the set, the Red Hawks led 18-14 and even 24-18 before the Muskies rallied to score the last eight points of the set and lead the match 1-0. Ripon was unable to get anything going in sets two and three as Lakeland pulled away for the match victory.
 
Ellie Ove had a match-high 9 kills on 22 attacks (.364) to lead the Red Hawks. This marked the first time this season in which she eclipsed a .300 hitting percentage. For her efforts this weekend, she was named to the All-Tournament Team.
 
Emily Braun was the primary setter for Ripon and distributed 26 assists. Defensively, three Red Hawks were in double figures in digs: Sam Thrasher (14), Braun (10) and Sam Differt (10).
 
Lakeland had advantages in kills (42-31), aces (7-3), blocks (6-3) and assists (39-30).
 
In the afternoon match against Simpson (4-11), the Storm had sizeable leads in each of the first two sets to keep Ripon at bay and take a 2-0 advantage. Ripon led 16-15 in set three before Simpson scored the next 10 points to take both set three and the match.
 
Lydia Ellis led Ripon with 8 kills, while Ove wasn't far behind with 7. Braun had 17 assists to spread the wealth, while Karly Riverdahl chipped in 7.
 
Thrasher collected 10 digs against the Storm, marking the third time in four matches (and 11th time this season) that she reached the double-digit threshold in digs.
 
Simpson led the team categories in kills (38-26), assists (35-26) and blocks (7-2), but each team had 4 aces.
 
Ripon now turns its attention to Midwest Conference play, visiting Monmouth on Friday (September 29) at 7 p.m.
 
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