For more information see the UW-Whitewater tournament championship web site.
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater defeated the University of Puget Sound 3-0 (30-17, 30-23, 30-25) Thursday afternoon in a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Championship Tournament quarterfinal match played at the Shirk Center at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois.
Box score
The Warhawks, 35-4, will advance to a semifinal match Friday at 4:30 against the winner of the quarterfinal between Amherst College, 30-4, and Juniata College, 36-4.
"We're really excited to win today", UW-W coach Stacy Boudreau said. "We did really well in serve receive. They were really aggressive on their serves, and we did a good job in receiving allowing us to executive what we wanted to do very well. We did a good job of mixing up offensive attacks, seeing the floor, and executing."
In game one of the win over Puget Sound the Warhawks got out to a 6-2 lead. The Warhawks kept Puget Sound playing from the back row and UW-W's lead increased 24-14. Whitewater closed out the win on a service error by the Loggers.
Puget Sound opened game two up 3-1 and held the lead until Whitewater tied the game 11-11. Whitewater's first lead came at 12-11, and Puget Sound called time out with Whitewater leading 16-13. Whitewater used an 8-4 advantage to go up 24-17 when UPS called another time out. The Loggers pulled within 27-22, but Whitewater closed out the game, scoring three of the next four and ending the contest on a Logger blocking error.
The Loggers led again in game two, 9-5, but tied the game at 10-10, then scored four more to make it 14-10. UPS knotted the game at 20-20 after a couple of Whitewater errors, forcing Whitewater to call its final time out of the game. Puget Sound took after the time out, but a kill by Sarah Theis (Lodi/Lodi) and a hitting error by UPS tied the game at 23-23. Whitewater scored three more, making it 26-23, and forcing UPS to take its second time out. Two Kate Lazotte (Stoughton/Stoughton) aces made the score 28-24. Kelly Sorensen (Madison/Memorial) used a kill and a service ace to end the match.
Whitewater was led by Sorensen's ten kills and fourteen digs, and Rebekah Nelson (Delavan/Williams Bay) hit .500 with nine kills. Kristina Conlin (Williams Bay/Williams Bay) contributed fifteen digs, and Lazotte added 38 assists and six service aces.
Puget Sound's Emma Bryant had ten kills, hitting .421. Jamee Fred and Rachel Gross had eleven digs apiece, with Fred also credited with 24 assists.
Whitewater hit .205, and Puget Sound .105. Whitewater had two ball handling errors, Puget Sound five; and UW-W had one blocking error and UPS three.
The loss ended a seven match win streak for Puget Sound, with the Loggers ending the season 20-9.
UW-W has won sixteen consecutive matches.
This is the Warhawks' 16th consecutive NCAA Division III Tournament appearance. Whitewater won the tournament in 2002 and 2005 and finished tied for third last season.
For more information see the UW-Whitewater tournament championship web site.
