For more information see the UW-Whitewater tournament championship web site.
UW-Whitewater defeated defending champion Juniata College 3-0 (30-28, 30-28, 30-25) Friday evening in a semifinal match of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Women's Volleyball Championship at the Shirk Center at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. UW-W, 36-4, the 2005 national champion, will face Washington University (32-5) who defeated Wittenberg (OH) 3-1 in the semifinals, will be playing in the championship match on Saturday at 7:00.
box score
"Juniata is a great team with a lot of championship experience, and they played great tonight," UW-W coach Stacy Boudreau said. "I have to give it to our girls. We had already lost to them twice earlier this year, but we thought we could play with them. We were able to eliminate errors and we played with first and passion, allowing us to get the victory. We are really excited to be playing in the championship match."
The lead exchanged hands several times in game one before Whitewater scored three straight to go up 16-12, for what would prove to be the largest lead of the game. After a point for each team, Juniata scored four in a row to knot the game at 17-17. Still tied at 21-21, Whitewater scored two to make it 23-21 and Juniata called time out. The Eagles scored four in a row after returning to the floor to take a 25-23 lead. Whitewater did not regain the lead until 29-28 on a block by Carley Polk (Dousman/Mukwonago) and Abby Schultz (Appleton/Kimberly). Polk ended game one with a kill.
Early in game two the teams stuck together, with Whitewater finally making a run to take a 13-8 lead. Whitewater maintained the five point margin to 15-10, but Juniata closed the margin to 16-15. The lead exchanged hands, always at a one point margin, until Whitewater led 27-26. With Whitewater ahead 28-26, Alyse Karls (Dane/Lodi)' service ace put Whitewater up 29-26. A Warhawk service error and a kill by Amber Thomas of Juniata put the Eagles back within one, 29-28. Lazotte's kill ended the contest and put Whitewater up 2-0 in games.
Juniata came out quickly in game three, taking a 5-1 lead, but Whitewater scored five of the next six points to tie the game at 6-6. Tied 11-11, Schultz and Kelly Sorensen (Madison/Memorial) had kills to give Whitewater a 13--11 lead. Juniata was still close at 16-15, but the Warhawks scored four in a row to increase the bulge to 20-15 Whitewater. Kills by Lazotte and Polk pushed the margin to 23-18. The closest Juniata could come the rest of the way was 27-24. Schultz ended the game, and the match, with a kill.
Senior Abby Schultz (Appleton/Kimberly), one of five seniors on the Warhawk roster, when asked about the winning kill said, "Yeah I wanted the ball. I'm a senior, a lot of us are, and people look up to us being seniors, and I think any of us would have wanted the ball," Schultz said.
The five seniors on Whitewater's roster (Schultz, Polk, Lazotte, Rebekah Nelson (Delavan/Williams Bay), Sarah Theis (Lodi/Lodi)) are 145-20 in their career at UW-W.
"We wanted to say steady and limit the number of runs by Juniata," Boudreau added. "We wanted to have aggressive serves, and with that comes erros, but our mindset was just to battle back and get the next ball."
UW-W was led by Schultz's 13 kills, with a .367 hitting percentage. Sarah Theis (Lodi/Lodi) and Polk contributed 12 kills each, and Polk led both teams with a .550 hitting percentage. Lazotte added 44 assists and 11 digs. Kristina Conlin (Williams Bay/Williams Bay) led Whitewater with 17 digs, and Polk had a game-high seven blocks (one solo).
Juniata's Amber Thomas led both teams with 22 kills, adding a .412 hitting percentage. Beth Kozak passed for 46 assists, and Megan Sollenberger was credited with 21 digs.
The Warhawks hit .290 and Juniata .191. Whitewater had seven service errors, Juniata six; and the Warhawks had three ball-handling errors and Juniata two. Both teams had just two reception errors.
Juniata and Whitewater had met twice earlier this season, with Juniata winning both. Juniata won 3-0 September 15 in a tournament in Saint Louis, and 3-1 October 12 at a tournament hosted by UW-Oshkosh.
UW-Whitewater is making its sixteenth consecutive NCAA III tournament appearance. In addition to the 2005 title, the Warhawks also won in 2002 and tied for third last year.
Illinois Wesleyan's championship host site
