MONTGOMERY, Ala. (August 24, 2019) – The Webber International University women's volleyball team split its opening two matches of the 2019 Faulkner Invitational on Friday, August 23, defeating Brenau University 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-21) and falling to the University of Mobile 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-10). The Warriors then bounced back on Saturday, August 24, with a big 3-2 (25-21, 15-25, 21-25, 25-22, 15-10) comeback win over Life University before wrapping up the tournament with another five-set win, a 3-2 (20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 20-25, 15-10) decision over the host school, Faulkner.

It was the third year in a row Webber has gone 3-1 at the Faulkner Invitational, but it took two thrilling five-set wins to do it.

The win over Brenau for the Warriors on Friday was Webber's sixth straight win and fifth straight sweep over the Golden Tigers, giving Webber a 9-1 all-time lead in the series. It was also the first win for the Warriors under their new head coach, Gretchen Hand.

"Warrior volleyball is improving every day," said Coach Hand. "Kalameli was putting it down on Faulkner's court, Nayrelis and Mekenzie were defensive machines, and the blocking line led by Maddy and Svenja was great. Our Warriors made it a whole team effort this weekend in Alabama."

Webber's returning Sun Conference Libero of the Year, Nayrelis Pantoja Santos, finished with double-digit digs in all four matches on the weekend. She had 20 digs in the win over Brenau, finished with 17 digs against Mobile, had 34 in the five-set win over Life and wrapped up the weekend with 37 digs against Faulkner. She finished the weekend averaging 6.8 digs per set.

Mekenzie Breuklander also had a great weekend, finishing with back-to-back doubles-doubles in digs and kills between the two matches on Saturday.

In the thrilling comeback win over Life to start the day on Saturday, Webber actually trailed 10-7 in the deciding fifth set before going on an epic 8-0 run to steal the win. The winning run for the Warriors was both started and finished with kills by Breuklander while Salla Rautiainen and Brianda Valdez also added kills during the run. Additionally, the Running Eagles committed four costly attack errors during the 8-0 Webber spurt.

Kalameli Matautia finished with a match-high 15 kills against Life while Breuklander added 11 kills and Rautiainen added nine. Madelyn Glouner and Svenja Koenig each finished with four blocks, Gilmary Ramos dished 16 assists, and Pantoja Santos had 34 digs while Breuklander added 12 digs to record her first career double-double.

Against Faulkner, a team that was coming off a great 2018 season in which the Lady Eagles finished 28-12 overall, won the Southern State Athletic Conference Tournament and advanced to the NAIA Women's Volleyball National Championship Opening Round, the Warriors needed another nail-biting win to claim what was their third victory in four seasons over Faulkner. It was also a little bit of payback for the 3-1 loss to the Lady Eagles that Webber suffered during last year's Faulkner Invitational.

In the fifth set against Faulkner, the Warriors jumped out to a 6-2 advantage, and then after three straight points for the Lady Eagles made it 6-5, Webber answered with three straight points of its own to go up 9-5. However, a quick 4-1 Lady Eagles' run again made it a one-point margin at 10-9 Webber before the Warriors responded with a 5-1 run ending with a service ace by Breuklander to finish it.

Five Warriors reached double-digits in digs against the Lady Eagles as Pantoja Santos finished with a match-high 37 digs and was followed by Breuklander with 21, Jessica Terry with 14, and Ramos and Valdez each with 12. Valdez also added 26 assists for her first career double-double while Ramos also reached a double-double with 15 assists. Breuklander's second double-double of the day came as she finished with 13 kills, a category that was led by Matautia with a match-high 17 kills.

Webber will return to action in one week for more tournament action as the Warriors host five matches in two days as a part of the Webber/Warner Classic inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center. Webber will battle Reinhardt University at 6 p.m. on Friday, August 30, and will then take on Montreat College (N.C.) at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 31, all while three other neutral matches are set to be played on Webber's home court throughout the two-day event.