2015 NCAA III Volleyball Regional Tournament Website

Illinois Wesleyan Postgame Press Conference, Nov. 12

Photo Gallery, Illinois Wesleyan vs. Dominican (courtesy Calvin College)

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. --The 2015 Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team became the first in school's history to win an NCAA Division III tournament match, sweeping Dominican 3-0 in the first round at Van Noord Arena on the Calvin College campus in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Thursday, Nov. 12.

Making their first NCAA appearance since 1998, the Titans won by scores of 25-18, 25-18, 25-22 to improve to 23-9, the most wins for an IWU team since the 2006 team won 24 games. IWU will play Carthage at 4 p.m. (Central time) Friday in the NCAA Division III regional semifinals. The Lady Reds improved to 32-7 with a three-set win on Thursday over Wis.-LaCrosse (20-10) by scores of 25-22, 25-16, 25-13. Carthage ousted Illinois Wesleyan from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin tournament last Friday, winning in three sets.

On Thursday, Illinois Wesleyan never trailed in any of the three sets and Dominican tied IWU at 7-7 and 8-8 in the second set before the Titans pulled away. IWU hit .233 in the match, making 47 kills in 133 attempts with 16 errors while Dominican had a .106 hitting percentage with 32 kills and 18 errors in 132 swings.

Sophomore Kyleigh Block paced IWU with 14 kills and had 17 digs with freshman Tyler Brown accounting for 13 kills and making 18 digs. Block and Brown each had one service ace and freshman Leah Seielstad had two service aces and 17 set assists.

Senior Mary Rankin was the team leader with 27 digs and freshman Heidi Dague led IWU with five total blocks while giving seven kills.

Junior Colleen Rynne had a team-best 20 assists and sophomores Anne Cummings and Maisy Bowden each had three blocks.

The Stars saw their season end with a 25-10 record. Kendyl Todd and Rosalyn Wise each had eight kills to lead Dominican with Christina Wilson making a match-best 24 assists.

NOTES: Illinois Wesleyan now has a 1-3 record in NCAA Division III tournament play. Go here to see the Titans' history in volleyball ... Only 12 other teams have achieved 23 or more wins in IWU volleyball history back to 1974. The school record is 30 wins in 1989 ... Historically, in 51 matches against each other, Carthage has won 26 and IWU 25 in the all-time series. The teams have split this season with IWU winning in five sets at Carthage on Oct. 23 (25-21, 17-25, 25-23, 22-25, 15-11) and the Lady Reds prevailing one week ago (Nov. 6), 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 26-24) ... Carthage has won nine straight matches this season since their loss to IWU.