The UW-Whitewater women's volleyball team earned an automatic berth into the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III tournament with a 3-1 (29-27, 18-25, 25-18, 25-19) win over UW-Stevens Point for its fourteenth Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament title.  The Warhawks and Pointers shared the conference championship with UW-Eau Claire.  Whitewater beat Eau Claire 3-2 in a Friday semifinal.

Box Score

WIAC Tournament Website

UW-W fought for the early match lead with an intense 29-27 win in the first set. Battling back from behind most of the set, the Warhawks tied the score at 21-21 on a 3-0 run. The teams traded points with the score being knotted seven times in the final fifteen points of the match. UW-W used a UW-SP service error to take the final lead and Leanna Lillge (Ixonia/Watertown) pounded down a kill to give Whitewater the set 29-27.

Stevens Point turned the tables on Whitewater in the second set, putting together a mid-set run of 11-3 and a late game 4-0 surge to top the Warhawks 25-18.

Carrying the momentum from a win in set two, the Pointers jolted to a 6-0 start in set three and followed with another 6-2 run to take an early 12-2 lead. Refusing to fold, the Warhawks answered with a 6-0 run of their own forcing a Pointer timeout. UW-W kept the pressure on with an 8-1 run out of the break in play to take an 18-14 lead. A late 6-1 run allowed Whitewater to roll to a 25-18 third set win taking a 2-1 advantage in the match.

Set four consisted of more runs except almost all were by UW-W with the Pointers only putting back-to-back points on the board five times in the set. Whitewater posted a 6-1 advantage early in the set to take a 9-6 lead and followed with a 11-5 run to build a 20-13 cushion on UW-SP. The Warhawks held off the Pointers in the final points of the game to take the set 25-19 and the match 3-1.

Sofia Sanchez (Janesville/Craig) led UW-W with 15 kills, 13 digs and three assist blocks for her seventeenth double double (kills-digs) of the season. Lillge recorded her ninth consecutive game with double figure kills, collecting 14 in the contest. Freshman Kim Frei (West Bend/West Bend West) dished out 36 assists in the match. Libero Kelsey Nobilio (Johnsburg, IL/Johnsburg) posted her second straight 20+ dig outing with 20.

The Warhawks and Pointers, share identical 26-7 records this season.

The WIAC Tournament champion receives the automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament.  This marks the twentieth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance for the Warhawks and twenty-fifth total. UW-W won national titles in 2002 and 2005 with second place honors in 2000, 2001, 2006 and 2007.

The location of the NCAA III regional Whitewater will compete in will be announced Monday, November 7.

For additional information: UW-W coach Stacy Boudreau