The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point football team will try to break a five-game losing streak dating back to last season at UW-River Falls Saturday.
The Pointers, who are 0-4 overall, meet another team with a 0-2 record in the WIAC. Both teams were expected to contend for the WIAC title and had two losses or less the past two seasons.
UW-SP fell to 0-4 for the first time since 1975 with a 38-31 loss to UW-Oshkosh Saturday. All four of the Pointers' losses have been by one touchdown and, dating to last season's NCAA Division 3 playoffs, the Pointers are riding a five-game losing streak for the first time since 1975.
The Pointers and Titans were tied at 31-31 late in the game when UW-O scored the winning touchdown on a 44-yard touchdown pass with 3:37 left for its first victory over UW-SP since 1983.
Pointers' quarterback Scott Krause (Waunakee) threw for 256 yards in his second career start. Cornerback Jonah Roth (Boscobel) returned an interception 42 yards for a touchdown in the final minute of the third quarter to tie the game.
Saturday's game can be heard live on 99.9 FM WIZD.
Women's soccer
Scoring in double digits is rare in collegiate soccer, but to do it three times in one week would seem nearly impossible.
However, that's precisely what the Pointers did last week, reaching double figures in three straight WIAC matches in a seven-day span.
UW-SP trounced UW-RF 10-0 on Sept. 23, beat UW-Stout 10-1 last Thursday and UW-Superior 12-0 on last Friday.
Making the Pointers' rare week even more strange is the fact that sandwiched between those three easy wins was a 1-0 non-conference shutout loss to the University of Chicago.
Scoring wasn't a problem the rest of the week as Marie Muhvic, a Stevens Point Area Senior High graduate, scored twice against UW-Stout and three times at Superior to become the Pointers' all-time leading scorer with 59 career goals. She set the record in just two and a half seasons at UW-SP since transferring from Eastern Michigan, surpassing Susie Lindauer's (1989-92) record of 55 goals.
The coming week is one of the Pointers' biggest of the season as they played a rare night match Wednesday at Edgewood, an NCAA tournament qualifier last season, and then take on WIAC co-leader UW-Eau Claire Saturday in a match that will likely determine the WIAC regular season champion and postseason tournament host.
Women's volleyball
The Pointers bring some much-needed momentum into three WIAC matches this week after posting a 3-3 record last week and a fourth place finish at the eight-team UW-EC Invitational over the weekend.
The Pointers beat Finlandia (Mich.) in three games on Tuesday and, remarkably, didn't have a single hitting error in the entire match. After a four-game loss to St. Norbert later on Tuesday, the Pointers responded with two marathon victories on Friday.
UW-SP beat Southwestern (Tex.) and Beloit in five games each on Friday as Raina Gagnow (Schofield) had 28 kills and Lucy Fisher (Appleton) had 71 assists against Southwestern. The Pointers battled UW-Stout and UW-EC to four games on Saturday to finish fourth overall.
Gagnow had 71 kills and 56 digs in the tournament, while Emily Morgan (Portage) posted 28 blocks over the weekend.
Women's golf
One thing that can always be expected in the WIAC golf championships is the unexpected.
Three of the four league teams, UW-SP, UW-EC and UW-W have each won one of the league's four titles with UW-W winning twice and UW-O yet to take the title.
UW-Superior was scheduled to host the meet, but was unable to field a full team and the meet was moved to Whitewater. The two-day tournament is a 36-hole event.
The Pointers are coming off a fourth place finish at the seven-team UW-O Invitational Saturday and Sunday. UW-SP made seven birdies in Saturday's round, including an eagle by Andrea Miller (Sheboygan), but fell to fourth on Sunday.
Kathryn Carlson (Chippewa Falls) shot a two-day total of 171 to finish 11th overall and Rachel Sime (Tomah) had a 175 to place 15th overall.
Cross country
The Pointers are well-rested entering a pair of key meets this weekend as the men take part in the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. and the women travel to UW-EC.
Both the men's and women's teams are ranked seventh in the latest Division 3 rankings and the women took last weekend off. The men's team finished third out of nine teams at UW-W Saturday, marking the first time in four meets this season they didn't come home with the team title.
Women's tennis
UW-SP plays twice in the upcoming weekend after taking last week off. Saturday's match at UW-EC pits the Pointers against the defending WIAC champion. The Pointers also host Ripon in a non-conference match on Friday.