ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Northwestern women's volleyball team took to the court for one last time in the unique 2020-21 season hosting the Minnesota Morris Cougars for the UMAC Tournament Championship. The Eagles earned their second-straight volleyball tourney title with a 3-0 sweep (25-15, 25-16, 25-18).

UNW continued their winning streak, improving to 10 wins to finish out the season. Finishing 24-5 overall and 8-0 in the UMAC regular season ranked fifth overall in top all-time season records for the Eagles.

Set number one began with two Northwestern kills by opposite hitter Kendra Hardy (Alexandria, Minn./Alexandria) and outside hitter Gabby Straub (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson). The Eagles went on a five-point run to go up 9-3 on the Cougars and never looked back. Set one went to UNW after two Morris errors, 25-15.

Northwestern downed 15 kills to the Cougars seven.

Sydney Schwitters (Clara City, Minn./MACRAY) started set two with an ace before a flip-flop of points. The Eagles found themselves down four at the most before making a four-point run to tie the score up at eight. Another four-point run gave Northwestern a six-point lead, 18-12.

Morris battled and did their best to score points but UNW was unstoppable capitalizing on two Cougar mistakes, an ace by Caitlyn Pruis (Sioux Falls, SD./Sioux Falls Christian) and kill by Kiera Brown (Columbia Falls, Mont./Columbia Falls) to win set two, 25-16. With 14 kills in set two, the Eagles hit an impressive .435.

Set three brought excitement and nerves as the Eagles felt closer to winning the Tournament Championship. Minnesota Morris started the scoring before a Kiera Brown (Columbia Falls, Mont./Columbia Falls) kill. Northwestern found themselves within one before a five point Cougar run, to go down six, 16-10.

The Eagles battled back one point at a time and tied the score at 17 with two kills and an ace from Gabby Straub (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) and a Kalley Schwitters (Clara City, Minn./Central Christian) kill. Northwestern pushed eight straight points to sweep the Cougars in three, 25-18.

Gabby Straub (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) led the attack for the Eagles with a double-double 12 kills and 13 digs. Kalley Schwitters (Clara City, Minn./Central Christian) added 11 kills and 12 digs on the day, while Caitlyn Pruis (Sioux Falls, SD./Sioux Falls Christian) had four aces. Sydney Schwitters (Clara City, Minn./MACRAY) dished out 42 assists and Marylyn Schroyer (Ft. Collins, Colo./Ft. Collins) had 17 digs.

UNW finished with 46 kills to the Cougars 21 and 63 total digs. Senior Kalley Schwitters (Clara City, Minn./Central Christian) was selected as the UMAC Tournament MVP hitting .308 with just three errors on 26 attempts.

The Eagles finish the unique season with the UMAC Regular Season Title and the UMAC Tournament Championship for the second year in a row.

For all things UNW women's volleyball fans can visit www.unweagles.com or follow along at @unwvb.