Sports

By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s volleyball team will head to Mount Vernon, Iowa for NCAA Regional action this week. The eight-team regional hosted by Cornell College will run Thursday through Saturday.  

The Warhawks (26-4) will take on Coe College (21-11) to open their 34th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The first match of the day Thursday will feature Washington-St. Louis against St. Olaf at 11:30 followed by UWW and Coe at 2 p.m. At 4:30, Northwestern (MN) will face Edgewood with Cornell hosting Millikin in the final match of the evening at 7 p.m. 

REGIONAL INFORMATION
Location: Mount Vernon, Iowa
Facility: Small Athletic & Wellness Center

Click here and select UWW Match Notes (PDF) for further details.

More information will be posted on the online preview story as it becomes available

UWW’S PATH TO REGIONALS
The Warhawks finished as the runner-up in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings but rolled through the league tournament to claim the WIAC’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. UWW swept UW-River Falls in the semifinal, beating the Falcons for the second time in less than a week. In the WIAC Tournament Championship, UW-Whitewater was phenomenal in handing UW-Oshkosh its first loss of 2023 on the Titans’ home court. The Warhawks won in straight sets to take down the No. 2 team in the nation and punch their ticket to regionals. UWW has won 18 WIAC Tournament titles. 

HOW COE QUALIFIED
Coe, the number three seed in the American Rivers Conference Tournament, knocked off top-ranked Dubuque 3-1 in the title match to claim the ARC’s automatic bid into the postseason. The win is Coe’s second straight ARC tournament championship. 

ALL-LEAGUE LEADERS

The Warhawks swept all major player awards in the WIAC this season. Outside hitter Jenna Weinfurt (Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial) was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year while libero Morgan Jensen (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) secured Defensive Player of the Years honors for the second time in her career. Setter Aubrie Krzus (Wheaton, Ill./Warrenville South) was named the WIAC Newcomer of the Year. In addition, the nation’s top blocker, Kirsten Anderson (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie), garnered First Team All-WIAC recognition. 

The Kohawks were represented by middle hitters Grace Lueken and Gracie Urbatsch, setter Maddy Maahs and pin Madi Parson on the ARC’s All-Conference listing this season. 

BATTLE OF THE HAWKS

The Warhawks lead the all-time series against Coe 9-4 since 2006. UWW has won the last six and eight of the last 10. Five of the last six meetings have resulted in the Warhawk sweep. Coe has won the lone two five-setters since 2006. Thursday’s match will be the second meeting between the two squads this season – UWW won 3-0 on September 9 on the road. 

WHS Grad and UNC sophomore Reese Brantmeier swept the singles and doubles titles at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Fall National Championships in San Diego on Sunday, November 6th. Reese became the first player since 2001 to accomplish the feat. Reese Brantmeier won a three-set match against Ayana Akli of South Carolina 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 for the title. 

A few hours later, Reese and UNC teammate Elizabeth Scotty would compete in the women’s doubles final. The UNC doubles team won the ITA championship with a win in the finals over Oklahoma State’s Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar in straight sets 6-1, 6-2. Brantmeier and Scotty did not lose an entire set in doubles play at the ITA doubles tournament.

On top of all the success on the court, there is a project very special to Reese. Reese began her tennis career at Washington Elementary school. It was here that she began as a tennis player. 

The Reese Project Court Restoration Project Announced

Reese has reached out to many people and organizations in the nation’s tennis community to band together and support her efforts to restore the courts on the Washington Elementary school grounds. This is a passion project for Reese who is a graduate of WUSD and a Washington Elementary alum. 

Events that are currently in the works are …

• The UNC’s Women’s tennis program (current NCAA 2023 National Champions) is hosting a donor event in January as they kick off their season to raise money for the project.

• The legendary Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals have donated autographed wooden racquets and a signed book as well as their time and efforts to the project.

• The Pancho Gonzalez Foundation and the Latin American Tennis Foundation have donated items for raffles and continue to put project organizers in contact with other interested organizations.

• Sports agencies are helping Reese get the word out to companies wanting to support community efforts to provide a lifelong sport to this community.

• The nationally ranked UWW men’s and women’s teams have offered their support to help in events at Washington to grow interest in tennis and the project.

To create sustainable courts, we are looking to raise $200,000 through these above efforts as well as through anyone interested in donating to the project. For more information on the project or to donate, go to the Reese Brantmeier Project.

Article and Photos Submitted by Greg Stewart, WHS
gstewart@wwusd.org

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater volleyball team claimed the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-22) sweep of UW-Oshkosh Saturday night, November 10. 

Box Score

With the win the Warhawks … 

• won the WIAC Tournament Championship for the 18th time in program history — that’s 14 more than any other school in the league
• secured the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Tournament 
• punched their ticket into NCAA Regionals for the 34th time in program history
• snapped UW-Oshkosh’s 34-match win streak
• handed the Titans their first loss of 2023
• broke UWO’s streak of 22 consecutive set victories

As fans would expect a match between the second-ranked team in the nation (UWO) and the sixth (UWW) was a thrilling battle throughout. The Warhawks worked back from an early 4-1 deficit out of the gate to knot the first set 5-5. The squads traded points until UWW went on a 4-0 run to take a 13-10 advantage. The Titans were forced to call a timeout and scored the next three to tie the set once again. 

The set continued that way, a back-and-forth battle, all the way until the end. A Titan error gave the Warhawks the first set point, 24-22. UWO registered a kill on the next point before Aubrie Krzus (Wheaton, Ill./Warrenville South) sneakily dumped the ball over on the second hit for the final point and a 1-0 lead in the match for UWW. 

The Warhawks never trailed in set two, leading by as much as seven late in the set, 20-13. Still the home team battled back to force two set points before Kirsten Anderson (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) put it away with a kill. 

The third set was reminiscent of the first two – back-and-forth early on followed by a Warhawk run that gave UWW a big lead, 17-11. The 8-0 burst featured three kills from outside hitter Jenna Weinfurt (Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial). 

The Titans responded with their own 6-0 run to knot the set 17-17. After trading a number of points, UW-Whitewater strung together three in a row to give a little cushion, 21-18. UWW scored three of the next five to force match point, 24-20. After a pair of miscues, middle hitter Hannah Proctor’s (Durand, Ill./Durand) hard cut shot towards the line couldn’t be handled by the Titan libero and the Warhawks stormed the court in celebration. 

Anderson was efficient from the middle with 13 kills in 29 attempts with just a single attack error – a hitting percentage of .414. The nation’s top blocker added a solo and six assist blocks in the match. Weinfurt matched Anderson’s kill output with 13 to share match-high honors, adding 10 assists for the double-double. Right side Payton Kuepers (Madison, Wis./Lakeside Lutheran) was integral in UWW’s blocking game with two solo and three assist blocks. 

Krzus dished out 32 assists adding a pair of kills, an ace and a block. In the backcourt, Morgan Jensen (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) led all players with 28 digs. Ally Longden (Pewaukee, Wis./Pewaukee) added double digit digs with 13. 

Prior to the match Saturday night, WIAC administrators announced the Judy Kruckman Scholar-Athlete Award. Jensen was selected as the 2023 honoree. She is the 12th Warhawk to earn the award and first since 2016. More information will be released on Monday. 

UW-Whitewater will make its 34th appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament slated to start next week. More information including locations of the regional sites, opponent and the entire Division III field will be announced during the selection show on Monday at 12 p.m. available live on ncaa.com. 

By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information

Stevens Point, Wis. — University of Wisconsin-Whitewater senior forward Aleah Grundahl (DeForest, Wis./DeForest) became the all-time leading scorer in Warhawk women’s basketball history in UWW’s 84-56 win over St. Norbert College Saturday afternoon. 

Grundahl led all players with 20 points in the contest bringing her career total to 1,380 to set the program record previously held by Mary Merg (2010-14). The record-breaking bucket came early in the fourth. Grundahl took the entry pass from the top of the key near the right block. She backed down the defender towards the middle of the lane before spinning back right for a fading bank shot to score around three defenders. Grundahl was 7-15 from the floor and 6-8 from the free throw line to lead UWW in the game. She was a single rebound shy of a double-double while adding six assists in the record-breaking game. 

UW-Whitewater jumped out to a handy lead outscoring the Green Knights 20-7 in the first quarter. The Warhawks extended the margin to 24, 48-24, at the break. UWW continued to widen the gap eventually taking a 33-point lead – the largest of the game – on a Sydney Lehman (Amherst, Wis./Amherst) layup with 4:12 left in the contest. 

Maggie Trautsch (Sun Prairie, Wis./DeForest) joined Grundahl in double figures with 19 bolstered by 5-9 from beyond the arc. Kacie Carollo (Whitewater, Wis./Whitewater) added 11 points on 4-8 from the field and 3-5 from long range. 

The Warhawks return to Whitewater for their home-opener Wednesday against Ripon College. The doubleheader features the Warhawk women at 5:30 followed by the men against Carroll at 7:30. The teams will be collecting nonperishable food items during the Hoops for Hunger night. All donations will go to the Whitewater Community Space to help our community as we near the holiday season.