The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women’s volleyball team has had an impressive run this year as they started to close out the season this weekend.

The Horizon League Tournament started on Friday, Nov. 17, against Youngstown State in a match in which UWM pulled away with a three-game win (30-26, 30-25, 30-19). Cheryl Hegemann, a 6-foot-1-inch senior middle blocker, had 13 kills against the Penguins, followed by senior outside hitter Melissa David (12), junior Jamie Gabrielsen (11) and senior Sarah Moore (10).

Their defense pumped up as Saturday against UW-Green Bay as they rolled around with libero Becky Peters leading the team with 22 digs while sisters Leanne and Lauren Felsing added 22 and 21, respectively.

"I thought our defense really won us the match," UWM head coach Kathy Litzau said. "Even better, I thought we had two freshmen come through in the clutch for us, with Lauren and Kellye really stepping up and making plays down the stretch. Plus, Monica was swinging hard at crucial times and scored some key points for us.”

The Panthers came back when Green Bay scored the first four points of the game only to take the lead for good at 7-6 on a UWGB error. The score reached 11-7 when Hegemann made an impressive kill.

The score grew to 21-14 thanks to Hegemann once again.

“I thought in game two Green Bay really forced us into a lot of situation where we made errors, but we turned that around in games three and four. Our middles are always so consistently good, but they can't do it alone. It was good to see our outsides step up in games three and four and push back when Green Bay threatened us in the fourth game," Litzau said.

The Phoenix never got closer than five points the rest of the way, as an ace by Felsing made it 26-18 before back-to-back kills from Hegemann closed things out.

> Comments