Postgame Press Conference
MARIETTA, Ohio – For the first time since 2018, the Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Tournament as the Titans swept Franklin & Marshall College to keep their season alive. IWU won by set scores of 28-26, 25-13, and 25-23 to improve to 23-9 on the season, while F&M saw its season come to an end with a 23-7 record.
With the win, the Titans advance to play the winner of tonight's match between weekend host, Marietta College, and St. John Fisher. IWU will take on the winner tomorrow, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m. ET inside Ban Johnson Arena. A full interactive bracket, which includes real-time updates, can be found here.
Junior Taylor French (Romeoville, Ill.-Plainfield East) made her presence known in her NCAA Tournament debut, finishing with a team-high 16 kills on a whopping .394 clip. She added a match-high four aces, tying Franklin & Marshall's total as a team, while tallying six digs and three blocks. Also impressing were junior
Hannah Tellor (Metamora, Ill.-Metamora Township) and freshman
Alex Bardouniotis (St. Charles, Ill.-St. Charles North), who joined French with double-digit kills. Tellor tallied a dozen kills on a team-leading .476 hitting percentage, while Bardouniotis contributed 10 kills and seven digs.
Illinois Wesleyan's attack, which outhit Franklin & Marshall, .255 to .175, was directed by sophomore Sophia Feeney (Bloomington, Ill.-Normal Community) and senior
Abby Erdman (Aurora, Ill.-Metea Valley). Feeney paced IWU with a match-high 24 assists to go along with a trio of aces and four digs. Erdman finished with 18 helpers.
Defensively, junior Kannyn Boyd (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.-Mt. Pleasant) led the Green and White to a 46-37 lead in digs. Boyd accrued a match-best 18, with Bardouniotis notching seven. French and Tellor followed with six apiece.
Sophomore Eleanor Palmer (Chicago, Ill.-DePaul College Prep) guided a dominating net presence for the Titans as Illinois Wesleyan finished with an 8-1 advantage in blocks. Palmer tallied four rejections, while Tellor and French kicked in three each.
Illinois Wesleyan raced out to a 4-1 lead early, but Franklin & Marshall jumped ahead, 11-8. Bardouniotis' kill started a big run for the Titans as Tellor followed with a kill of her own. The junior middle hammered down another kill, aided by rally-saving digs from Boyd, to level the score at 11. Back-to-back aces by Feeney pushed IWU ahead, 13-11, as F&M called its first timeout.
Bardouniotis kept the Green and White rolling out of the reset, notching a kill. Tellor teamed up with sophomore Cailin Shannon (Bloomingdale, Ill.-Lake Park) for a dominant rejection before slamming down a kill to cap the 8-0 run as IWU took a 16-11 lead.
The Diplomats clawed back to knot the score at 17 all and eventually 26-26. A lengthy rally that featured its fair share of chaos ended with a French kill as the Green and White stared down its fourth set-point opportunity, 27-26. Refusing to be denied, the Titans saw French seal a thrilling, 28-26, win with a kill on an assist from Bardouniotis.
The second set was back-and-forth in the early goings, much like the first set. Feeney set Tellor for a kill to give IWU a slim, 11-10, edge and turn the momentum fully in favor of the Titans. French hammered down a kill after consecutive errors by F&M to force a timeout with the score standing, 14-11, in favor of IWU.
The Titans continued rolling with kills from Palmer, French, and Bardouniotis into another Diplomats' timeout with the Illinois Wesleyan lead up to seven, 20-13. Unfazed by the reset, the Green and White rattled off five straight points to close out the set. A monstrous block by fifth-year Jordan Pierce (Bonfield, Ill.-Herscher) and a Palmer-Bardouniotis stuff pushed the score to 22-13, before three straight aces by French wrapped up a 25-13 victory.
Franklin & Marshall climbed to a 2-1 lead in set three, but a French kill tied the score at two apiece. A service error by the Diplomats returned serve to the Titans with the Green and White leading, 8-7.
Taking full advantage, French served up an ace to push IWU ahead, 9-7. An ace by Boyd, Illinois Wesleyan's 10th of the match, upped the lead to three and jump-started a timely Titan run. Rattling off five points in-a-row, Tellor came up with a pair of kills and a block, while Bardouniotis added a kill of her own to extend the IWU lead to seven, 15-8.
Feeney's ace brought about Franklin & Marshall's second and final timeout of the set, which proved timely as the Diplomats fired off five straight points to pull within three, 17-14.
Looking to swing momentum back in favor of the Green and White, Kim Nelson-Brown called her first timeout of the set. A trio of Illinois Wesleyan miscues allowed F&M to level the set at 17-17. A kill from French halted the Diplomat run at eight and put the Titans back on track. Tellor followed with a kill off the Feeney set on back-to-back points to reclaim a 20-18 advantage.
A kill from senior Morgan Harrington (Plainfield, Ill.-Plainfield East) and another from Pierce gave IWU a two-point cushion, 23-21. French found open space near the backline for a kill to move the score to set point, where, after a point by F&M, Palmer slammed down a rejection alongside Bardouniotis to finish off the sweep, 25-23.
Illinois Wesleyan awaits the outcome of tonight's match between regional host, Marietta, and St. John Fisher. The Titans will meet the winner in the second round tomorrow, Nov. 22, with a 7 p.m. ET first serve.
