BABSON PARK, Fla. (August 16, 2019) – The Webber International University women's volleyball team opened up its new 2019 campaign in front of its home crowd against a top-10 nationally-ranked opponent, but in the end, the Warriors fell 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-16) against No. 10 Eastern Oregon University on Friday inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center.

It was the first ever match for Webber (0-1) under its new head coach, Gretchen Hand, who becomes the third head coach of Warrior volleyball in the last four seasons.

"I am glad to see us continuing to improve as a team and work on what we need to work on," said Coach Hand. "Going up against a nationally-ranked team like Eastern Oregon, we had to focus on what we could control. Going forward, I would like to see more aggressive serving, and we will look forward to seeing them again later in the season."

Senior Kalameli Matautia led the Warriors with nine kills while junior Svenja Koenig was next with five. In the assists category, Webber had three players with at least four helpers as senior Valerie Vargas led the way with six and was followed by fellow-senior Gilmary Ramos with five and junior Laura Embry with four.

Defensively, senior Nayrelis Pantoja Santos led the way with 20 digs and was one of three Warriors with double-digit digs. She was joined by senior Mekenzie Breuklander with a career-high 19 digs and Embry with 10.

The Warriors also finished with 72 digs as a team compared to 69 for Eastern Oregon (1-0).

To open the match, Webber won the first point but fell behind by five twice at 8-3 and 12-7 before battling back to within one point three times at 13-12, 15-14 and 16-15. Unfortunately after that, back-to-back kills by the Mountaineers started a 9-3 EOU run to close out the set. Then, after Webber took the first point of the second set on a kill by Matautia, the Mountaineers doubled up the score over Webber at 14-7.

In the third set, a kill by Matautia tied the match at 15-15, but then EOU took control for good on three straight Warrior attack errors. Down 18-15, a kill by Vargas from the setter position made it 18-16, but a 7-0 Mountaineer run to end the match was all she wrote.

The Warriors, who have won either The Sun Conference regular season or conference tournament championship during each of the last three seasons, have loaded up the nonconference portion of their 2019 schedule in an effort to play more quality opponents and get back to the NAIA National Tournament after missing out last season. Webber previously qualified for the NAIA Opening Round back during the 2016 and 2017 campaigns.

Webber will return to action next weekend at the Faulkner University Invitational, which takes place on Friday, August 23, and Saturday, August 24. The Warriors will battle Brenau University (Ga.) at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and the University of Mobile (Ala.) at 8 p.m. EST on Friday. Then, on Saturday, Webber plays Life University at 11 a.m. EST followed by Faulkner (Ala.), the host school, at 3 p.m. EST. Overall, the Warriors have gone 3-1 at the Faulkner Invitational during each of the last two seasons after going 4-0 at the tournament back in 2016.