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Warhawks Win WIAC Tournament; Earn NCAA III Automatic Bid
The UW-Whitewater women's volleyball team earned an automatic
berth into the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division
III tournament with a 3-1 (29-27, 18-25, 25-18, 25-19) win over
UW-Stevens Point for its fourteenth Wisconsin Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference tournament title. The Warhawks and
Pointers shared the conference championship with UW-Eau
Claire. Whitewater beat Eau Claire 3-2 in a Friday
semifinal.
Box
Score
WIAC
Tournament Website
UW-W fought for the early match lead with an intense 29-27 win in
the first set. Battling back from behind most of the set, the
Warhawks tied the score at 21-21 on a 3-0 run. The teams traded
points with the score being knotted seven times in the final
fifteen points of the match. UW-W used a UW-SP service error to
take the final lead and Leanna Lillge
(Watertown) pounded down a kill to give Whitewater the set
29-27.
Stevens Point turned the tables on Whitewater in the second set,
putting together a mid-set run of 11-3 and a late game 4-0 surge to
top the Warhawks 25-18.
Carrying the momentum from a win in set two, the Pointers jolted
to a 6-0 start in set three and followed with another 6-2 run to
take an early 12-2 lead. Refusing to fold, the Warhawks answered
with a 6-0 run of their own forcing a Pointer timeout. UW-W kept
the pressure on with an 8-1 run out of the break in play to take an
18-14 lead. A late 6-1 run allowed Whitewater to roll to a
25-18 third set win taking a 2-1 advantage in the match.
Set four consisted of more runs except almost all were by UW-W
with the Pointers only putting back-to-back points on the board
five times in the set. Whitewater posted a 6-1 advantage early in
the set to take a 9-6 lead and followed with a 11-5 run to build a
20-13 cushion on UW-SP. The Warhawks held off the Pointers in the
final points of the game to take the set 25-19 and the match
3-1.
Sofia Sanchez
(Janesville/Craig) led UW-W with 15 kills, 13 digs and three
assist blocks for her seventeenth double double
(kills-digs) of the season. Lillge recorded her ninth
consecutive game with double figure kills, collecting 14 in the
contest. Freshman Kim Frei
(West Bend/West) dished out 36 assists in the match. Libero
Kelsey
Nobilio (Johnsburg, IL) posted her second straight 20+
dig outing with 20.
The Warhawks and Pointers, share identical 26-7 records this
season.
The WIAC Tournament champion receives the automatic bid into the
NCAA Division III tournament. This marks the twentieth
consecutive NCAA tournament appearance for the Warhawks and
twenty-fifth total. UW-W won national titles in 2002 and 2005 with
second place honors in 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2007.
The location of the NCAA III regional Whitewater will compete in
will be announced Monday, November 7.
For additional information: UW-W coach Stacy
Boudreau
