NORTH MIAMI, Fla. (September 14, 2019) – The Webber International University women's volleyball team won for the first time in Sun Conference play under its new head coach, Gretchen Hand, defeating Johnson & Wales University 3-1 (25-13, 17-25, 28-26, 25-21) on Saturday afternoon in what was the Wildcats' 2019 home opener.

It was also the second TSC matchup of the season for Webber (4-4 overall, 1-1 TSC) and was the first for JWU (2-5, 0-1).

The turning point in the match came in the third set as Webber trailed 24-23 and was at risk of going down two sets to one. However, Samantha Davila kept the set going with a kill to make it 24-24, and after two more ties, back-to-back kills by Salla Rautiainen and Kalameli Matautia flipped the script and gave the Warriors the 2-1 set advantage.

In the fourth set, Webber led the whole way, but JWU did get to within one at 21-20 before back-to-back errors by the Wildcats and another kill by Matautia made it 24-20.

Earlier in the match after a great first set for the Warriors in which Webber held leads of 8-2, 14-6 and 20-7, the second set saw Webber lead 14-11 halfway through before the Warriors fell behind 21-16 after a 6-1 Wildcats' run.

Webber hit an incredible .567 percent in the first-set blowout before coming back to earth in set number two and hitting only .030 percent.

Impressively, Webber had four players record a double-double, had three players reach double digits in kills, and had seven players with eight or more digs.

Svenja Koenig and Matautia each recorded a double-double between kills and digs. Koenig finished with a team-high 15 kills, a .367 attack percentage and 13 digs while Matautia had 14 kills and also had 13 digs. It was the first career double-double for both players, and was a career-high in both kills and digs for Koenig and was a career-high in digs for Matautia.

Laura Embry and Brianda Valdez also recorded double-doubles between assists and digs. Embry finished with a career-best 30 assists and 10 digs while Valdez had 14 assists and also had 10 digs.

Additionally, Rautiainen added a career-high 10 kills with a .346 attack percentage while Madelyn Glouner had seven kills, an attack percentage of .316 percent and 11 digs.

Also in the digs category for Webber was McKinzie Maloney with nine, good for a career-high in what was only her second appearance of the season as a freshman, and Jessica Terry with eight.

"Our Warriors did a great job today and displayed some really aggressive serving," spoke Coach Hand. "Madelyn Glouner was crushing it from the back row and Brianda Valdez was taking JWU off guard sending the ball over on two."

Overall, Webber is now a perfect 7-0 all-time against Johnson & Wales dating back to the first ever meeting between the two teams back in 2016. The Warriors have yet to ever go to a fifth set against the Wildcats, but it was close this time around.

Next up, Webber will return home for a big rivalry matchup with Warner University on Wednesday, September 18, at 7 p.m. inside the Sabbagh Athletic Center.