The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater defeated Calvin College 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-18, 25-14) in the opening round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III women's volleyball championship tournament. UW-W is one of eight schools playing in a regional hosted by UW-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Warhawks, now 30-9, advance to the second round at 4:30 Friday to face the winner of another first round match between Carthage College (30-4) and Saint Norbert College (30-3).
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UW-W vb tourney page
Trailing 3-1 in game one, UW-W went on a 6-1 run to take a 7-4 lead it never relinquished. That was followed shortly by a 6-2 stretch, and later by a 5-1 run as UW-W won game one going away. In game two Whitewater was in front 9-6 when Calvin went on a 7-2 run to lead 13-11. Although UW-W was able to pull within one, it never regained the lead. The longest run of the match came in game three. With Calvin leading 8-5 Whitewater outscored CC 14-2 to go up 19-10 and take control of the match. The same thing happened in the decisive fourth game, when leading 7-4 the Warhawks went on a 12-1 roll to take commanding 19-5 lead.
Melissa Zuleger (Little Chute/Little Chute) led the Warhawks with 15 kills and a .462 hitting percentage. Liz Benzschawel (Madison/Edgewood) and Keri Klotzbuecher (Clintonville/Clintonville) added ten kills each, and Jillian Neave (Salem/Westosha Central) passed for 55 assists. Alyssa Bauer (Naperville, IL/Central) and Sofia Sanchez (Janesville/Craig) contributed 17 and 16 digs, respectively. Zuleger chipped in with a team high five block assists.
Calvin's Rebecca Kamp led both teams with 21 kills. Kelsey Sears led the team with 17 digs, and Kamp had four blocks.
UW-Whitewater hit .260, and had one ball handling error and three reception errors. Calvin hit .140 and had six ball handling errors and seven reception errors.
UW-Whitewater is making its seventeenth consecutive NCAA III championship tournament appearance, and twenty-first overall. The Warhawks won the 2002 and 2005 titles, and finished second last season.
The regional at UW-Oshkosh will conclude with the regional title match at 7:00 Saturday. The winner of the regional will advance to the NCAA III final eight at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois November 20-22.
