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Taylor French
Ashtin Elder
3
Winner North Park NPU 17-2,5-0 CCIW
2
Ill. Wesleyan IWU 7-10,3-3 CCIW
Winner
North Park NPU
17-2,5-0 CCIW
3
Final
2
Ill. Wesleyan IWU
7-10,3-3 CCIW
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 5 F
North Park NPU 25 20 25 14 15 (3)
Ill. Wesleyan IWU 22 25 23 25 12 (2)

Game Recap: Women's Volleyball |

18th-Ranked Vikings Squeak Past Titans

French posts 21-kill, 21-dig double-double

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team's upset bid against No. 18 North Park University fell short in five sets inside the Shirk Center Wednesday night, Oct. 11. The Titans (7-10, 3-3 CCIW) fell to the nationally-ranked Vikings (17-2, 5-0 CCIW) by set scores of 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 14-25, 15-12.

Sophomore Taylor French (Romeoville, Ill.-Plainfield East) turned in a 21-kill, 21-dig double-double on a .315 attacking percentage. The Romeoville, Ill. native recorded a match-high in kills and finished second to sophomore Raegan Watts (Forsyth, Ill.-Maroa Forsyth) in digs. Watts, making the start at libero, recorded a team-high 22 digs.

Seniors Lily Summers (Plainfield, Ill.-Plainfield North) and Jordan Pierce (Bonfield, Ill.-Herscher) also tallied double-double performances. Summers finished with 10 kills and 11 digs, while Pierce dished out 40 assists and accrued 13 digs. Pierce, who finished with a .429 attacking percentage, also registered seven kills.

As a team, the Titans trailed the Vikings in kills, 61-57, but finished with a .225 clip to NPU's .212. North Park also held edges in digs (81-80), aces (9-7), and blocks (6-4).

Illinois Wesleyan rode the play of French and freshman Eleanor Palmer (Chicago, Ill.-DePaul College Prep) to a 19-13 lead in the opening set, but North Park battled back. The Vikings took a 22-21 advantage late, and never looked back, scoring three of the final four points.

The Titans bounced back in the second set, this time erasing an early Viking lead.Trailing 14-9, Harrington tooled a block out of an IWU timeout to bring the Titans back into the set. Pierce and freshman Paige Peterson (Bloomington, Ill.-Central Catholic) followed up with a block, and Pierce notched the third straight point with a kill, bringing the score to 14-12 in favor of the Vikings. 

Trailing 18-14, the Green and White put together a 10-1 run, sparked by back-to-back aces from freshman Olivia deGuzman (Wauwatosa, Wis.-Divine Savior Holy Angels) off the bench. French evened the match at one set apiece, as she buried a set from Pierce, closing out the set 25-20. 

After dropping the third, the Titans cruised to a 25-14 win in the fourth to even the match at two sets apiece.

The fifth saw North Park use a three-point run to climb ahead, 6-2. A French kill broke the run, but NPU came right back with a pair of kills and an ace to up its advantage to 9-3. A couple North Park miscues and timely kills from French and Palmer pulled Illinois Wesleyan within one, 9-8, but that was as close as IWU would get. The Vikings ran away with the fifth set, and the victory, with a final set score of 15-12. 

Illinois Wesleyan heads on the road this weekend for two more nationally ranked contests. The Titans will take on 12th-ranked Washington University in St. Louis as well as No. 2 University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
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