PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 5-ranked Western Washington University volleyball team opened the 2018 season with a 3-0 defeat against No. 24 Wheeling Jesuit Friday morning in the opening match of the West Florida Invitational played at Hartsell Arena on the Pensacola State College campus.
 
The Vikings (0-1) and Cardinals were locked in a tight contest with the match featuring 24 tie scores and 12 lead changes, but Wheeling Jesuit prevailed with the 27-25, 25-22, 25-22 victory. The match was the first of four in the season-opening UWF Invitational, all featuring teams ranked in the Preseason NCAA Division II AVCA Top 25.
 
"This is why we come to a tough tournament like this…it's a good test against very different styles of play," said 19^th-year head coach Diane Flick-Williams. "Gabby (Gunterman) had a really nice debut leading us in kills. We just made too many errors at key times in the match."
 
Redshirt freshman outside hitter Gabby Gunterman (Lake Stevens, WA) made a solid collegiate debut with a 16-kill, 16-dig double-double to lead the Vikings. Gunterman hit an efficient .333 in the match (16 kills, 5 errors, 33 attacks) and also added 3 block assists for a team-high 17.5 total points.
 
Senior outside hitter Abby Phelps (Manson, WA/Chelan) followed with a 12-kill, 13-dig double-double, the 56^th of her career, but was limited to a .156 attack percentage (12-5-45).
 
Senior libero Aubrey Stephens (Colville, WA) led four Vikings recording double-digits in digs with 19.
 
The Vikings out-blocked Wheeling Jesuit (1-0) 10.0 to 5.0, led by 5 blocks from junior middle Kayleigh Harper (Oak Harbor, WA) and 4 from senior middle Michaela Hall (Centralia, WA).
 
Wheeling Jesuit, the 2015 NCAA Division II national champions, were led by a match-high 22 kills from junior right side Haley Kramer and 22 digs by sophomore libero Audrey Francis.
 
The Vikings return to action this afternoon facing No. 2-ranked Southwest Minnesota State at 2 pm CT/12 pm PT at Hartsell Arena. The game can be followed via a live webcast and live stats with links available at WWUVikings.com/Live. Tomorrow's action vs. No. 7 Regis (9 am CT/7 am PT) and No. 15 West Florida (4:30 pm CT/2:30 pm PT) will be played in the UWF Field House on the West Florida campus.
 
MATCH NOTES…Abby Phelps now has 1,167 career kills, moving to within 7 of 6^th place in the WWU record book (Lorrie Post, 1,174)…Michaela Hall gained sole possession of 12^th place in the WWU career record book with 314 career blocks…the match was a rematch of the 2015 NCAA II semifinal won by Wheeling Jesuit en route to the national championship...Aubrey (Buckner) Stephens moved up to 24^th in WWU history in career digs (750).
 
HOME OPENER…The home opener on WECU Court in Carver Gym will be Thursday, Sept. 6 against Seattle Pacific. Single-game and season tickets for the volleyball season are now on sale at WWUVikings.com/Tickets.
 
FOLLOW THE VIKS…Fans can follow WWU Volleyball online at WWUVikings.com/VB, and via social media on Twitter (@WWUVolleyball), Instagram (@WWUVB) and Facebook (@WWUVolleyball).