2015 NCAA III Volleyball Regional Tournament Website

Illinois Wesleyan Postgame Press Conference, Nov. 13

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. --The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team battled Carthage to five sets before being eliminated from the 2015 NCAA Division III regional tournament in the round of 32 at Van Noord Arena on the Calvin College campus in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Friday, Nov. 13.

The Titans saw their season end with a 23-10 record, falling to the Lady Reds by scores of 25-27, 25-21, 13-25, 25-23, 7-15. Carthage has now won 10 straight matches since losing to IWU in the regular season (Oct. 23) and advances to the round of 16 with a record of 33-7.
An example of IWU's comeback efforts came in the fourth set when the Titans found themselves down 10-2 and 15-9 before rallying to tie the set at 19-19. The Titans took six of the final 10 points to win 25-23.
Making their first NCAA appearance since 1998, the Titans won their first-ever NCAA match on Thursday, 3-0 over Dominican.

Sophomore Kyleigh Block led Illinois Wesleyan against Carthage with 22 kills and tied for the team-high with senior Mary Rankin with 24 digs. Freshman Tyler Brown had 17 kills and 19 digs and sophomore Anne Cummings also contributed 10 kills.

Assists Junior Colleen Rynne had 27 assists and freshman Leah Seielstad had 25 to set up the Titan attackers, who had a .169 hitting percentage in the match with 62 total kills and 28 errors in 201 hitting attempts.

Sophomore Maisy Bowden paced IWU with four total blocks with freshmen Heidi Dague and Anna Clausen each contributing three blocks. Rynne, Seielstad and Rankin each provided one service ace.

Carthage had a .230 attack percentage with 68 kills and 22 errors in 200 attempts. The Lady Reds were led by the 20 kills of Emily Heuermann, who also had 19 digs, Karen Chin with 60 set assists and Luci Krenzke with 33 digs.

NOTES: The 23 victories is the most for an Illinois Wesleyan team since the 2006 team won 24 games ... 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 ... Illinois Wesleyan now has a 1-4 record in NCAA Division III tournament play. Go here to see the Titans' history in volleyball ... Historically, in 52 matches against each other, Carthage has won 27 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 in the conference tournament semifinals 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.