STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The St. Olaf College volleyball team was on the wrong end of a pair of four-set matches against UW-Oshkosh and UW-Stevens Point at the Pointers Invitational II on Saturday at Quandt Fieldhouse and Berg Gym.

Sophomore Catherine Moore paced the St. Olaf (5-8) offense with 28 kills over the two matches, but UW-Oshkosh (10-7) and UW-Stevens Point (15-2) held the Oles to a sub-.200 attack percentage in both matches. The Pointers were receiving votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top 25 poll.

At the conclusion of the tournament, junior Nicole Banitt was named to the All-Tournament Team after recording 30 kills and hitting at least .400 in all three of St. Olaf's matches.

UW-Oshkosh 3, St. Olaf 1 | Box Score

After dropping the first set, St. Olaf claimed a tightly-contested second set before eventually going down 25-15, 25-27, 25-16, 25-19 to UW-Oshkosh in its first match of the day. The Titans hit over .300 in each of the three sets they won and hit just .000 in the second set.

Moore had a team-high 11 kills for St. Olaf, which got eight kills apiece from Banitt and senior Katelyn Lannom and seven kills from first year Madison Gully. Senior Brynne Gray and first year Waverly Thao recorded 21 and 15 assists, respectively, while junior Selena Rodriguez led the Oles with 14 digs.

UW-Oshkosh jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first set and never looked back, leading by at least seven points the rest of the way. St. Olaf responded in the second set to even the match at a set apiece. An early 8-3 lead for the Oles was the largest lead of the set for either team, but the Titans eventually had a set point at 25-24 but squandered it on an attack error. A solo block by Moore on the next point gave St. Olaf a set point of its own before another attack error by UW-Oshkosh sent the match to the third set even at a set apiece.

After committing 12 attack errors in the second set, the Titans had just seven over the final two sets while hitting .377. UW-Oshkosh claimed an early 10-4 lead in the third and held at least a five-point advantage for the rest of the set. In the fourth, St. Olaf was within two, 18-16, before losing the next four points as the Titans closed out the four-set win.

UW-Stevens Point 3, St. Olaf 1 | Box Score

Later in the afternoon, the Oles raced to a commanding win in the first set, but the host Pointers recovered to claim a 13-25, 25-20, 25-13, 28-26 victory on their home court. Moore had a match-high 17 kills and Banitt added a dozen, but it wasn't enough for St. Olaf.

Gray put together her eighth double-double of the season with 27 assists and a team-high 18 digs, while Rodriguez registered her second double-double this fall with 16 digs and 10 assists. Lannom pitched in with nine kills and just one error on 21 swings to hit .381.

After a competitive first half of the opening set, the Oles won 12 of the final 13 points of the set to turn a 13-12 lead into a 25-13 set win. St. Olaf had 18 kills and hit .289 in the set while limiting UW-Stevens Point to just three kills in the set.

The Oles led 14-13 in the second set before the Pointers won six of the next seven points to take the lead for good. In the third, UW-Stevens Point broke open a tight set with a 9-0 run to go ahead by a 22-11 margin. The Oles won eight-straight points early in the fourth to trim an early 10-1 deficit to one and took a two-point lead at 18-16. St. Olaf eventually had set points at 24-22, 24-23, and 25-24 but could not convert as UW-Stevens Point sealed the win by winning four of the final five points.

The Oles travel to St. Paul to face Northwestern on Wednesday, Sept. 29 at 7 p.m. in the first match between the two programs since the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.