BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team saw its eight-match win streak and perfect record inside the Shirk Center come to a halt Friday night, Oct. 18, with a four-set loss to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. The Titans (15-6) fell to the Pointers (16-6) by set scores of 25-22, 19-25, 25-21, and 25-21.
The Green and White could not overcome the Pointers stout net presence as the IWU attack finished with a .132 clip. UWSP hit .279 in the match, holding a 49-42 edge in kills and a 6-4 lead in blocks. Illinois Wesleyan led in digs, 60-51, and aces, 15-7.
Junior Hannah Tellor (Metamora, Ill.-Metamora Township) totaled 10 kills on a .363 clip, while adding two blocks and an ace. Junior Taylor French (Romeoville, Ill.-Plainfield East) tallied seven aces to go along with 11 kills and 13 digs. Sophomore Sophia Feeney (Bloomington, Ill.-Normal Community) paced the Titans with 21 assists, with fifth-year Jordan Pierce (Bonfield, Ill.-Herscher) adding 15 helpers. Feeney also added a trio of aces.
Junior Kannyn Boyd (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.-Mt. Pleasant) recorded a team-high 16 digs. Freshman
Alex Bardouniotis (St. Charles, Ill.-St. Charles North) also finished with double-digit digs, tallying 10, while Pierce added eight.
Illinois Wesleyan used four straight French aces to climb ahead, 8-4, as the Pointers called a timeout. A Bardouniotis kill upped the lead to five, before back-to-back kills from the freshman gave IWU a 12-7 advantage as the Titans appeared to be in control.
UWSP asserted itself with a 9-1 run to bring about a Titan timeout with the Green and White trailing, 16-13. Illinois Wesleyan trailed by as many as five, but a Tellor kill cut the deficit to one, 22-21. Tellor extended the set with another kill to stave off set point, but UW-Stevens Point captured the set, 25-22, on an IWU service error. The Pointers used a .433 hitting percentage in the set to upend the Titans, who hit .212.
Bardouniotis aced the Pointers after an UWSP service error to give the home team a 2-0 lead. IWU's two-point edge remained intact for much of the early going before Tellor kills sandwiched a UW-Stevens Point timeout to drive the lead to 15-11.
A three-point Pointers run trimmed the Titan lead to one, 15-14, but IWU would not relinquish control this go around. Senior Morgan Harrington (Plainfield, Ill.-Plainfield East) notched a kill after a UWSP error to extend the Green and White's lead, 17-14.
Illinois Wesleyan used a 6-1 run, which featured a pair of aces by Feeney and a Harrington kill, to drive ahead, 24-18. UW-Stevens Point held off set point on a kill, but Tellor finished off the set with a hammer of a kill down the line to level the match, 1-1.
The Titans took a 1-0 lead in the third as Feeney set fellow sophomore Cailin Shannon (Bloomingdale, Ill.-Lake Park) for the kill, but the Pointers responded with a string of four points to claim a 4-1 advantage. UWSP held off IWU's late comeback in the set to claim a two sets to one lead with the 25-21 set victory.
The fourth set was a back and forth affair with neither team leading by more than two until an error gave IWU a three-point cushion, 17-14, into a UWSP timeout. The Pointers battled back out of the reset to level the score at 19 all as the Titans called a timeout.
Tellor tipped a ball over the block to reclaim a Green and White lead, 20-19, but the Pointers scored three of the next four to snag a 22-21 edge. Illinois Wesleyan used its second timeout of the set at that point, but could not muster much more in a 25-21 defeat as UW-Stevens Point snapped IWU's win streak with a four-set setback.
Illinois Wesleyan dips back into College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play this coming Wednesday, Oct. 23, with a trip to Rock Island, Ill. IWU will take on Augustana College with a 7 p.m. first serve.
