STEVENS POINT, Wis. – It was a late night for the No. 10 Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team as the Bears split their first two matches at the Papa John's Invite on Friday evening.

The Bears opened with a 3-0 sweep of Augsburg before nearly completing a comeback against No. 20 Gustavus Adolphus in a five-set thriller. WashU moves to 13-3 overall on the season.

WashU 3, Augsburg 0
Both teams opened the match playing evenly, with the Bears holding a slight 6-3 lead before the Auggies responded to tie it up at 7-7. Despite the Auggies going on a 5-1 run to take a 12-10 lead over WashU, Augsburg could not keep the momentum. WashU used a 6-1 run of its own to retake the lead at 16-13.

Augsburg got within one at 17-16, but this time it was a 7-1 run by the Bears that gave them a set point. The Auggies saved one set point, but an attack error would give WashU the 1-0 match lead, winning the first set 25-18.

WashU scored the first four points of the second set, and the Auggies scored the next four to tie it up at 4-4. That was the only tie of the set as the Bears took the next two points on a service error and then a service ace by senior Anna Freeman and never looked back.

The Auggies kept it close and got within just one point on three separate occasions, but they could not get the set back to even. This time, the Bears capitalized on their first set point opportunity with a kill from senior Sam Buckley to take a 2-0 match lead after taking the second set, 25-21.

It looked like at the start that Augsburg was pushing to make it to a fourth set, leading 12-8 in the third. A 4-0 run by WashU tied it up at 12-12; however, a 5-0 run by the Auggies gave them a 17-12 advantage.

The Bears began to slowly chip away at the lead, capped by a 3-0 stretch to tie the score at 21-21. After the Auggies regained their lead for one point, the Bears closed out the set on a 4-1 run, capitalizing on their first set point for the 25-23 set three win and the match 3-0.

Junior Leah Oyewole led the Bears with nine kills with a .313 attack percentage. Buckley dished out 26 of the 32 WashU assists, while junior Ellie Laird led the team with 11 digs.

Gustavus Adolphus 3, WashU 2
Like most of their first match, WashU played evenly to start a set. Tied at 7-7 in the first, the Gusties went on a 4-0 run to jump ahead by four. WashU responded with a 4-1 run to pull within 12-11, but a 5-1 run put Gustavus Adolphus back ahead by five. This time, the Bears responded with a 6-1 stretch to pull even at 18-18.

A 3-0 run by the Gusties was matched by a 3-0 run by WashU. The Bears got the first set point at 24-23, capitalizing on a service error and a bad set by GAC to take the first set 26-24.

The second set belonged to the Gusties as they took an early 6-2 lead and built it up to an 18-9 advantage over WashU. The Bears did not go away quietly, using a 10-4 point stretch to pull within just three at 22-19, but the lead was too much to overcome as GAC leveled the match at 1-1 with a 25-19 set two win.

Set three looked to be under the Bears' control as they maintained a lead until late when the Gusties tied it at 19-19. GAC completed the comeback, scoring six of the final nine points to take a 2-1 lead with a 25-22 set three win.

The fourth started off with the Gusties taking the lead at 12-8. The Bears responded with a 5-1 run to tie the set up at 13-13. Overall, the run ended as a 7-0 stretch by WashU that saw it jump ahead 19-13. The Gusties eventually pulled back within two at 24-22, but a kill by Freeman tied the match up at 2-2 after the Bears took the fourth set, 25-22.

GAC started off in the fifth set by taking an 8-3 lead as the teams changed ends. The Bears pulled within one on a 4-0 run, making it 8-7. The teams then traded two-point scoring runs, and GAC got a set point at 14-12. After WashU saved one with a block by senior Eva Boling, the Gusties were able to close out the set 15-13 for the five-set win.

Oyewole led the Bears with 24 kills against the Gusties, while Freeman also reached double figures with 16 kills. Buckley recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 42 assists and 16 digs. She was one of three Bears with double-figure digs as Laird finished with 18 digs and first-year Abby Krause had 12 digs.

The Bears close out the weekend tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 4 when they take on No. 5 Wis.-Eau Claire. The first serve with the Blugolds is scheduled for 12 p.m.

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