Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243

MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Oct. 30, 2021) - Continuing their weekend in Wisconsin, the Loras College women's volleyball team (19-10, 5-2 A-R-C) wrapped up regular season play Saturday afternoon as they squared off against the Elmhurst University Bluejays (16-12, 6-2 CCIW) and the Wisconsin Lutheran University Warriors (12-14, 7-5 NAAC) in the Warrior Invite, hosted by Wisconsin Lutheran. The Duhawks recorded their fifth-straight sweep against Elmhurst but fell to the Warriors in a five-set thriller as they gear up for postseason play. 

The first match of the day featured the Duhawks and the Bluejays from Elmhurst, seeing the Duhawks take an early 2-0 lead on a Bluejays error followed by a Sara Hoskins service ace. The set stayed close early on, with the score tying four times before Elmhurst went ahead by two at 13-11. A Bluejays service error and a Moira Mixan kill followed to bring the score back at an even 13-13 before the Duhawks took a three point lead after scoring four in a row on kills from Lyndsi Wilgenbusch and two Elmhurst errors to bring the score to 18-15. The Duhawks wrapped up the set in commanding fashion, outscoring Elmhurst 7-1 in the final moments of the set with four of the seven points coming by way of Elmhurst errors as the Duhawks took the 25-17 set victory. 

As was the case in the first set, the Duhawks went up by two immediately in the second set on kills from Liz Fleckenstein and Mixan. The two teams continued to battle early before the Duhawks took a wide six-point lead at 10-4 after Fleckenstein notched a pair of kills and Cat Gleason added one. The Bluejays continued to try to climb back and eat away at the lead, but the Duhawks continued to fight them off as they went ahead by five at 15-10 on a Mixan kill, a Talia McAtee service ace and an Elmhurst error. The Duhawks didn't let their foot off the gas as the offense sparked late, outscoring the Bluejays 10-4 as Fleckenstein slammed the door shut on the set with back-to-back kills to go ahead 2-0 with the 25-16 set two win. 

Elmhurst struck first in the third set of the match, but the lead was quickly spoiled as the Duhawks added six in a row to the board on a Wilgenbusch kill, a Gleason ace and four straight Bluejays errors. The Bluejays made an attempt at a comeback soon thereafter, pulling back within two at 11-9 as they tallied three in a row but again the Duhawks pulled away by six at 15-9 after scoring four in a row. Loras continued to grind through the middle of the set, seeing the effort pay off as they took at 10 point lead at 23-13 before Elmhurst tallied five straight to cut the deficit in half. The set came to an end at 25-20 in favor of the Duhawks on an Elmhurst error to see the Duhawks take the 3-0 sweep. 

Fleckenstein continued to lead the Duhawks' offensive efforts with 11 kills in the match, followed by Wilgenbusch who added 10 and Mixan who had seven. Mixan and McAtee excelled at the service line as they notched two aces apiece while Hoskins, Gleason and Sam Stoffregen each had one in the match. Defensively, Wilgenbusch and Gleason tallied two total blocks each while libero Krystal Tranel put up 21 digs, followed by Mixan who had 15 and Hoskins who recorded 14. 

In their second match of the afternoon, the Duhawks took on the Warriors from Wisconsin Lutheran College and got off to an immediate 3-0 lead on three-straight errors from the opposition. The Duhawks held the lead until the Warriors score four in a row to go ahead by two at 7-5 but back-to-back kills from Mixan and Wilgenbusch brought the score back to an even 7-7. The two teams battled through the middle of the set, seeing the score tie three more times before Loras jumped out ahead by two at 13-11 on kills from Fleckenstein and Gleason, followed by a Warriors error. The Duhawks held the narrow lead through the latter part of the set before the score tied six times in the closing points of the set, seeing the Warriors come out on top 27-25. 

Wisconsin Lutheran struck first in set number two but the Duhawks came back to take the lead at 4-2 early. The grit from the previous set carried over in the second, as the two teams tied the score four times before the Warriors went up by three at 10-7 after scoring four straight. Later in the set and down by five, the Duhawks' offense pulled together and chipped away at the deficit, outscoring the Warriors 9-3 to go ahead by one at 20-19. In what felt like deja vu, in the final moments of the set, the scoring went back and forth with the game tying five more times as the set again went into extra points as the Warriors again won 27-25. 

Down two sets to none, the Duhawks looked to avoid the sweep with a third set victory and took an early lead at 3-1 after scoring three straight on back-to-back Wisconsin Lutheran errors and a service ace from Fleckenstein. The Warriors regained the lead, however, and went up by two at 5-3 as they scored four in a row. From that point, the score tied three more times before the Duhawks tallied five points in a row to take a four-point lead at 13-9. Two straight kills from Fleckenstein and Gleason widened the lead to five points at 15-10 as the Duhawks continued to put pressure on the Warriors. The set closed out in dominant fashion for the Duhawks as they outscored the Warriors 8-1 with only four of the points coming on Wisconsin Lutheran errors as the Duhawks took the third set 25-14. 

Riding the momentum from a huge third set win, the Duhawks jumped on the Warriors early in the fourth set, going ahead by two at 3-1 on kills from Mixan and Wilgenbusch. The Duhawks held onto the lead as the Warriors made an attempt to take the game back, but the Duhawks poved to be too much to handle as they outscore the Warriors 7-2 in the middle part of the set to go up 13-7 after scoring four straight on a Warriors error and kills from Mixan and Wilgenbusch. Plagued by errors at the end of the set, the Warriors gave the Duhawks six of their last eight points on errors to see the Duhawks force a fifth set to decide a winner with the 25-14 set win. 

The Duhawks pulled away early in the fifth set as Hoskins sparked the offense with an ace to open the set that was followed by three straight Fleckenstein kills. Wisconsin Lutheran clawed their way back and tied the score back at 6-6, gaining the lead shortly after at 8-6. The Duhawks played them close through the end of the set but the Warriors held on to take the set 15-12 and win the match 3-2. 

Wilgenbusch led the match with 20 kills while Fleckenstein tallied 15 of her own. The Duhawks tallied six service aces in the match with Stoffregen, Gleason, Tranel, Hoskins, McAtee and Fleckenstein each notching one apiece. Olivia Smith was a wall at the net defensively with a match-leading four total blocks and was joined by Hoskins who tallied three. Setter Hoskins had 53 assists in the match while Tranel had a season-best 40 digs at the libero position.

The Duhawks are set to take on the Simpson College Storm on Tuesday, Nov. 2 as they begin postseason play in the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Tournament on their own court. The match is slated to begin at 7:00 PM inside the Patrick J. Lillis Athletic & Wellness Center.