The No. 16 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater volleyball team opened the season with a pair of wins in the 2022 Wisconsin Blast hosted by the Warhawks Friday evening. UW-W opened the day with a 3-0 sweep of Loras before taking down the twelfth ranked Wartburg Knights 3-1 to wrap up the day. 

The Warhawk offense was firing on all cylinders through the first two sets of the Loras match. UW-W hit an impressing .529 with 12 kills and just three errors in 17 attempts in set two. Meanwhile, the defense frustrated the Duhawks allowing forcing nine errors while allowing just nine kills in the set. 

Both offenses struggled in the final set of the match with the teams trading leads most of the way. Back-to-back kills from Allyson Warburton (St. Charles, Ill./North) and Kirsten Anderson (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) sealed the set and the match win for the Warhawks. 

Erin McNeil (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) had a phenomenal match for UW-W hammering down 10 kills with just a single error in 16 attempts. Anderson was strong at the defensively registering a solo block and six block assists in the contest. Morgan Jensen (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) held down the backcourt with 12 digs. 

The second match of the evening was expected to be a thriller and it did not disappoint. Once again the Warhawk offense was cruising through the first two sets pounding down 15 kills in the first set and hitting .318 in set two. 

Wartburg came firing back in set three using a 7-0 mid-set run to build a 16-10 advantage. Another small run for the Knights put the set out of reach. 

The Warhawks bounced back in set four. After trading points much of the first part of the set, UW-Whitewater flipped the script and rattled off five straight to make it 15-8 UW-W. The Knights tallied the next two but the Warhawks responded scoring seven of the next eight points to extend the lead to 22-11. 

Wartburg didn't fold but a service error and a huge kill from Anderson clinched the match. 

Three Warhawks registered double figure kills in the contest. Jenna Weinfurt (Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial) hammered down 14 while Anderson registered 12 and Hannah Proctor (Durand, Ill./Durand) posted 10. 

Hailey Mackenthun (Webster, Minn./Northfield) and Weinfurt found the seams in serve receive combining for eight aces in the match. 

Proctor, Anderson and McNeil each had four assist blocks to lead UW-W defensively at the net while Jensen tallied 19 digs in the backcourt. 

KellyAnn Sotiros (New Berlin, Wis./West Allis Hale) and Haley Ikeda (Fairfax, Iowa/Prairie) ran the offense combining for 70 assists on the day. 

The Warhawks wrap up the Wisconsin Blast with a pair of matches Saturday. UW-W will host Finlandia at 10 a.m. before concluding their slate in the tournament against Simpson at 2 p.m. All Warhawk matches will be played in Russell Arena.