ELMHURST, Ill. – The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team toppled Calvin College, the No. 1 ranked team in Division III and defending national champion, in four sets after beating No. 18-ranked Hope College earlier in the day at the Elmhurst Invitational on Friday, Sept. 15.

Winners of four straight, the Titans are 6-4 after the two wins over Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association teams, including a four-set win over Hope in an afternoon match. Calvin is 8-2, having lost in three sets to Aurora earlier Friday.
 
IWU won over Calvin by scores of 25-20, 25-20, 20-25, 25-20 as junior Tyler Brown had 20 kills and 11 digs. Senior Kyleigh Block made 13 kills with a team-best 14 digs and junior Maddie Williams had 11 kills with four blocks.
 
Junior Heidi Dague also had four blocks against the Knights while Kira Jackson had 25 assists and freshman Caitlin Meyer had 20 assists with freshman Jessica McCall tying Block for team-high with 14 digs.
 
IWU had a .230 hitting mark against Calvin with 57 kills in 135 attempts with 26 errors while the Knights were at .214 with 40 kills and 13 errors in 126 tries. Calvin had 12 service errors and 10 reception errors compared to eight and five for IWU.
 
Against Hope, the Titans won by scores of 25-18, 23-25, 25-23, 25-18 and had season-highs of 61 kills and a .294 hitting percentage in the match. The win over Hope gave IWU a 5-4 record while the Dutch fell to 6-3.
 
Brown had 18 kills and a team-high 21 digs while Block had 13 kills and 11 digs and junior Rachel Burkman provided 10 kills and 11 digs.
 
Jackson had 28 assists and Meyer had 25 assists and led the Titans with three service aces.
 
Dague made five total blocks with freshman Claire Bergman getting four and Williams adding two.
 
What's Next?
Illinois Wesleyan opens its 2017 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin season with a match at the Shirk Center against North Central at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 20.