The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, making its 20th consecutive national tournament appearance lost to the University of Chicago 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 25-16) Friday evening in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship tournament hosted by Washington University in St. Louis Missouri.

Box Score

Photo Gallery (courtesy of Angela Kelm; all photos are for sale)

In the first set the University of Chicago Maroons led 6-3, after scoring three of the next four extended its lead to 9-4. At 12-7 Whitewater scored the next three points to pull within 12-10. Chicago increased the lead back to six, 23-17 which Whitewater followed with a four point run to close to 23-21 before losing 25-22.

Set two was all about a comeback. The first part of the set went back-and-forth with the teams trading points. No team led by more than one point for the first 20 points scored. However, with the score knotted at 10-10, UC went on a 7-0 run. Once again faced with adversity, the Warhawks refused to give in. Back-to-back aces from Alyssa Bauer (Naperville, IL/Central) provided a spark for UW-W and forced a Maroon timeout with the Warhawks having narrowed the gap to three, 21-18. Three kills from Sofia Sanchez (Janesville/Craig), an ace by Kelli Trautmann (Seymour/Little Chute) and a couple of UC errors were all Whitewater needed to even the match 1-1.

Chicago jumped out to a quick 6-1 lead in set three. At 10-3 Chicago went on a 5-0 run to lead 15-3. UC extended its lead to 23-9, never allowing Whitewater within single digits the rest of the way. The Maroons took the 2-1 advantage in the match with a 25-14 third set win.

The Warhawks found themselves down 6-1 again in the fourth set that followed a path eerily similar to set three. A kill by Ariel Johnston (Rockford, IL/Guilford) got the Warhawks within three at 9-6. The Maroons eventually built an 11 point margin, the last two coming on back-to-back aces by Alexandria Meyers. A late set surge wasn't enough to make up the deficit as UC took set four 25-16 and the match 3-1.

Senior outside hitter Sofia Sanchez (Janesville/Craig) led the Warhawks with 14 kills. Freshman Ariel Feiertag (Brown Deer/Brown Deer) hit.385, and freshman Kim Frei (West Bend/West Bend West) and sophomore Heidi Buss (Cedarburg/Cedarburg) split time at the setter position dishing out 16 and 22 assists respectively. Freshman libero Kelsey Nobilio (Johnsburg, IL/Johnsburg) had 12 digs in the match to top UW-W and Bauer added four service aces.  UW-W hit .144 and Chicago was at .258. 

Bauer closed her UW-W career second in the school record book with 2,338 career digs.  Fellow senior Kelli Trautmann (Seymour/Little Chute) had 1,120 career digs for 14th place on the list.  And Sanchez, another senior, wrote her name in the books too, ninth in career kills with 1,251.

Chicago was led in kills by sophomore Morgan Clark and senior Colleen Belak, with 11.  Junior Katie Trela hit .444, and sophomore setter Nikki Del Zenero dished out 41 assists.  Belak and junior libero Samantha Brown contributed ten digs apiece.

Whitewater, which shared the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and won the league's postseason tournament, ends the 2011 season with an overall record of 26-8. The 30-5 Maroons will play the winner of the Friday night match between Washington University and Webster, with that second round set for Saturday at the regional site in Saint Louis.  The regional winner will be determined Sunday, and that team will advance to the NCAA III final championship series to join seven other regional winners.

For additional information: UW-W coach Stacy Boudreau