Whitewater, Wis. -- The No. 2 Warhawk women's volleyball team opened day two of the UW-Whitewater Invitational with a sweep of Elmhurst University (25-17, 25-13, 25-23) Saturday morning. The squad followed with a phenomenal five-set comeback win over Berry College 3-2 (24-26, 17-25, 25-17, 25-20, 16-14).

The UWW defense held the Blue Jays to a .000 attack percentage and single digit kills in the first two sets. The offense countered with double figure kills in each set and a team attack percentage of .241 in the contest. 

Abbie Dix (Brodhead, Wis./Brodhead) was stellar at the net hitting .733 for the match with 11 kills in 15 attempts without a single error. She added six blocks in the match. Fellow middle Amanda Hillmann (Cedarburg, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) tallied eight kills and eight blocks in the contest while right side Emily Lego (Rock Falls, Ill./Rock Falls) notched six block assists. 

Aubrie Krzus (Wheaton, Ill./Warrenville South) set up the Warhawk hitters on 25 kills and teamed up on five blocks. From the service line, Kyanne Wusterbarth (Oconto, Wis./Oconto) and Gaby DiMotto (New Berlin, Wis./West) combined for five aces. In the backcourt, libero Natalie Lawton (Elmhurst, Ill./IC Catholic Prep) paced all players with 14 digs. 

The second match of the day was an absolute thriller. After dropping the first two sets, the Warhawks came back with the next two to force the decisive fifth set. UW-Whitewater staved off multiple match points before scoring the final five points of the match to register the win. Trailing 14-11 in that final set, Dix hammered down a kill to start the run. A pair of attack errors for the Vikings and another Dix kill had flipped the script and given UWW match point. Bludgen put the match away with the final kill. 

Hillmann led UWW with 16 kills while Dix (13) and DiMotto (11) joined her in double figures. Krzus dished out 45 assists. Defensively at the net, middles Hillmann and Dix combined for nine blocks while Lego tallied four. 

In the backcourt, Lawton posted 24 digs and Bludgen had 22 to pace UWW. 

All-Tournament Team
PLU - Ayre Takamoto
ELM - Keely Larson
CUW - Paige Stickney
Berry - Madie Whitehead, Ava Brovet
UWW - Aubrie Krzus (Wheaton, Ill./Warrenville South), Gaby DiMotto (New Berlin, Wis./West), Abbie Dix (Brodhead, Wis./Brodhead)