University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneer’s women’s volleyball fell short to University of Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils at the Platteville home game. The final score for the game was 3-0. This puts the Pioneers at 5 and 8 for the season thus far. 

The women’s volleyball team did not go down without a fight, though. They held sets of 19-25, 18-25 and 23-25. 

Before the game started, the Pioneers practiced hard while listening to music as a pregame ritual. Coach Samantha Brikcht said this routine reminds the team to have fun during the match. She does not want the girls to get too caught up in the competitiveness of the game and forget why they play in the first place. This is Birkcht’s second year coaching the Pioneer women’s volleyball.

Brikcht started playing volleyball in high school, and she has continued ever since. She has one main goal when it comes to coaching women’s volleyball, which is to truly make a difference through the empowerment women.

Olivia Kudronowicz came to Brikcht’s mind as she led the team statistically in their match against the Blue Devils. She finished the game with 9 kills and 16 digs, which racked up her total amount of kills to 161 and her total digs to 183 for the season overall. 

Some of the other outstanding players for the Pioneers that Brikcht thought of were Lita Solbrig, who scored 7 points, and CJ Johnson, who scored 4 points against the Blue Devils. The team overall managed 53 blocks and 4 aces during the match. 

Brikcht feels great because she has a handful of young starters on the team this year, and the team is improving as they progress through the season. 

The next time the Pioneers will play at home is on October 2 against Simpson at 7 p.m. in the Williams Fieldhouse.