The UW-Whitewater volleyball team ended the Warhawk Invitational with a 3-1 (25-4, 23-25, 25-13, 25-23) victory over Bethel University on Saturday, September 5. The Warhawks improve to 5-1 on the season, 4-0 at the invitational, and the Royals fall to 3-2 overall.
Box Score
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Whitewater went ahead 9-3 in the first set forcing an early Bethel timeout. Out of the timeout, the Warhawks added to their run with a Caitlin Hogan (New London/New London) ace and kills from Katy Krajnak (Racine/Case) and Sofia Sanchez (Janesville/Craig), who also teamed up for a double block as UW-W strung eleven straight together giving them the lead 16-4. The Warhawks got a sideout right away and put nine more together to take the set 25-4.
Set two was a much different story as most of the game the two teams traded points back-and-forth with neither team getting more than a three point lead. A small run of three put the Warhawks up 20-17 when Bethel called their first timeout of the set. The Royals picked up some momentum and took the lead 23-22. Coach Stacy Boudreau called her first timeout but the momentum stayed in Bethel's corner as they won the second set 25-23.
UW-W jumped out to a 17-8 lead in the third set. After some back-and-forth rallies, Whitewater strung a couple points together to take the set 25-13.
Small runs riddled the fourth set with both teams scattering runs of two or three but never getting a significant lead. However, three big kills by Warhawk outside hitter Sanchez in the last four points gave Whitewater all they needed to win. UW-W took the set 25-23 and the match.
Krajnak led Whitewater at the net pounding down 12 kills and adding two solo blocks and assisted in two others. Sanchez and Hogan were big at the net as well with 11 and 10 kills respectively and Hogan added three aces and ten digs. Alyssa Bauer (Naperville, IL/Central) took charge defensively with 17 digs.
The Warhawks will travel to St. Louis, Missouri next weekend for the Washington University National Invitational. They begin the invitational with a match against Pacific Lutheran at 3:00 pm Friday, September 11.
