The UW-Whitewater Warhawk volleyball team made a run to the national championship that brought back some memories.

Shades of 2005 occurred as the No. 6 seeded Warhawks had a similar path to the top in the 2024 NCAA Division III Women’s Volleyball Tournament. The Warhawks faced four of the same opponents from their last national championship title 19 years ago, also played in Salem, Virginia. In the 2005 Regional round held in Oshkosh the Warhawks faced Elmhurst, UW-Platteville, and UW-Eau Claire. In 2024, Whitewater hosted and faced Ohio Wesleyan, UW-Eau Claire, and UW-Platteville. Amidst both runs, the purple and white punched their ticket to Salem where they faced Emory College in the first round. The semifinals featured LaVerne in ‘05 and Johns Hopkins in ‘24. For the national title, Juniata was the only team standing between Whitewater and a gold trophy.

In the quarterfinal round, the No. 6 seeded Warhawks swept the No. 3 seeded Emory Eagles 3-0 (25-13, 25-23, 25-19). Graduate student outside hitters Alayna Jansky and Jenna Weinfurt had double-digit kills on the night with 13 and 12, respectively. Junior outside hitter Chloe Werner contributed with 8 kills and 2 blocks. Sophomore middle hitter Abbie Dix made her presence known at the net with 6 kills and 4 blocks.

For Whitewater, the goal was to focus on their game and let the rest fall into place.

“I thought our team followed our game plan really well,” head coach Stacy Boudreau said. “Emory is an amazing program, they have a lot of history of success. They run a fast offense, their hitters are athletic. Our goal was to get them out of [their] system, and I think our serving was able to do that, and then our defense responded with great blocking and our offense was able to be set up with great passing.”

The offense has run through sophomore setter Aubrie Krzus all season long, and the Emory match proved no different as she totaled 37 assists on the night. Krzus has led the Whitewater offense with 1,139 assists, surpassing her total from last year of 1,121.

The blocking was elite this season for Whitewater, leading the nation in blocks per set with 3.1 as a team, they also have the nation’s leader in blocks per set on the roster in sophomore middle hitter Abbie Dix with 1.59.

“Blocking is huge for us, it’s something that we work on all the time. It’s something that we hone in on and focus on, and always have a really good gameplan by coach [Boudreau],” Jansky said.

In the semifinals, the Warhawks were tasked with the No. 2 seeded Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. In a thriller, Whitewater won 3-2. The Warhawks started cold in the first set, dropping it 25-13. They came out hot in set two, winning 25-16, but quickly lost momentum in the third set, falling 25-17. Set four saw the Warhawks pull away, taking it 25-16. Set five was Whitewater dominance, taking a commanding 15-7 victory and advancing to the National Championship. It was not an easy night for the Warhawks, but they battled and got the job done.

“John Hopkins came out so strong. It was really hard for us to get them out of [their] system right away, our block wasn’t able to get set, and they did a good job serving us tough and getting us out of system. It just felt like we couldn’t do anything,” Boudreau said. “Set two, we turned things around, started passing well, started serving more aggressively, and it allowed us to run our offense. It also allowed our defense to set up a bit better.”

For the rest of the match, both teams played each other tough. Boudreau let her seniors take control after the third set and bring the team together. The trust she instilled in that group to refocus the team shows a lot about who she is as a coach.

“You could see all of the ideas coming out and all of the communication, it was extremely positive. They all wanted it and they flipped a switch. They played tough and played with each other and we had an amazing outcome,” Boudreau said.

Jansky and Weinfurt led the way again with kills, tallying 17 and 16, respectively. Werner and grad student middle hitter Hannah Proctor both tallied 7 kills each. Dix had 8 blocks, Proctor and Krzus had 6, Werner had 4, and Weinfurt had 3.

“When we are down, and we get a big block, it just brings so much energy to everyone on the bench and the people on the court, even our fans.” Dix said, who has 173 total blocks on the season. “I dare you to hit it into my hands.”

Boudreau said something that motivated the team, and which translated to the court, all season long.

“Teams don’t out-block us.”

Switching sides, Krzus continued her domination on the offensive side, this time tallying 43 assists. Whitewater played like a team, sticking together as a unit.

“I wouldn’t be able to do anything I do without any of my teammates,” Weinfurt said.

After a tough win on Thursday, the Warhawks faced off against the No. 1 seeded Juniata Eagles on Saturday night for the national title. Ultimately, it was not the ideal ending for the Warhawks as they dropped the championship match 3-2.

The first two sets ended in 25-19 Juniata wins. Whitewater came back strong with a commanding 25-15 win.

“I think after the first two sets, we were like, ‘We got nothing to lose. Let’s go out there and start swinging,’” Weinfurt said. “We started communicating so much better in the last three sets about what was open, what was working.”

The fourth set came down to the wire with Whitewater prevailing 28-26. If not for a successful in-or-out challenge by Boudreau Juniata would have won 27-25, but it was overturned and the Warhawks took the momentum to force set five.

“I think we just wanted to bring the fun back into the game,” Jansky said. “Whitewater volleyball is just playing fun volleyball … we took that and ran with it.”

Juniata jumped out to an early lead, going up 8-0. After two timeouts by Boudreau, the Warhawks slowly chipped away at the lead, getting the score to 10-14. Ultimately, the Eagles won the next point on an attack error by Weinfurt, ending Whitewater’s season.

“This team is special. Every team is special, but these guys had that confidence, had that err about them to set that goal and to get here,” Boudreau said. “I think they set a really big legacy here with Whitewater volleyball … I’m proud of the way they never gave up and how they fought … It was quite a run.”

Weinfurt totaled 25 kills in the match to go along with 18 digs, with Jansky racking up 16 kills and 12 digs of her own against Juniata.

The Warhawks finished their 2024 campaign as national runners-up to go along with an overall record of 31-4, their best record since the 2015 season (31-5). The national title game marked their sixth appearance in the last 25 years (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2024), winning it all in 2002 and 2005.