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Men's Volleyball secures 10th win of 2024 season March 2, 2024
Kodiak Creative
1
North Park NPU 3-12,0-2 CCIW
3
Winner Ill. Wesleyan IWU 9-7,1-1 CCIW
North Park NPU
3-12,0-2 CCIW
1
Final
3
Ill. Wesleyan IWU
9-7,1-1 CCIW
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 4 F
North Park NPU 26 18 19 17 (1)
Ill. Wesleyan IWU 24 25 25 25 (3)
0
Bethany (WV) BET 0-18,0-0 DIII Independent
3
Winner Ill. Wesleyan IWU 10-7,1-1 CCIW
Bethany (WV) BET
0-18,0-0 DIII Independent
0
Final
3
Ill. Wesleyan IWU
10-7,1-1 CCIW
Winner
Set Scores
Team 1 2 3 F
Bethany (WV) BET 12 7 11 (0)
Ill. Wesleyan IWU 25 25 25 (3)

Game Recap: Men's Volleyball |

Men’s Volleyball Sweeps IWU Triangular II

Titans break into double-digit win margin

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - In the final of three home tournaments, the Illinois Wesleyan University men's volleyball team took down North Park University and Bethany College (WV) Saturday, March 2. With the two wins, Illinois Wesleyan breaks the double-digit win margin for the second time in the program's four years of existence, as the Titans improve to 10-7 overall, 1-1 in CCIW action. 

Illinois Wesleyan 3, North Park 1
The Titans opened the day with a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin contest against North Park (3-12, 0-2 CCIW), securing the victory in four sets (24-26, 25-18, 25-19, 25-17). 

Illinois Wesleyan recorded 56 kills on a .311 attack percentage, while limiting the Vikings to 45 kills on a .140 clip, including a .031 showing in the final set. The Titans advantage in the attack percentage is a credit to the 10-2 block advantage at the net.  IWU also recorded advantages in assists (54-42) and digs (46-40), while the Vikings finished with six aces to IWU's two.

Junior Ryan Myers (Hawthorn Woods, Ill.-Stevenson) led the Green and White offense with 17 kills, one shy of his career-high, doing so on a .387 attack percentage. Senior Michael Eastman (Chicago, Ill.-Saint Ignatius) finished with 14 on a .355 clip, as he surpassed the 800 career kills mark. 

Junior Vince DiCosola (Aurora, Ill.-Oswego East) and freshman Brenden Reutter (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) orchestrated the hot-hitting Titan offense, finishing with 30 and 23 assists, respectively. 

On the defensive side, junior Luke Hartke (Barrington, Ill.-Barrington) led the net defense with a career-best five blocks, while junior Jake Kougan (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) added four rejections. Sophomore Jace Milka (Bolingbrook, Ill.-Plainfield East) posted a match-high 15 digs, and Eastman added 10 to collect his third double-double performance. 

After narrowly dropping the first set, 26-24, Illinois Wesleyan jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the second set via a few Vikings miscues, along with kills from Myers and senior Julian Perez (Orland Park, Ill.-Carl Sandburg). 

Following a Vikings run, head coach Brandon Mueller burned his first timeout of the set, and Myers followed by tooling a block to push the score to 13-11. NPU took three of the next four points to even the set at 14, but Perez registered a kill to put the home team in front, 15-14, sparking a 6-1 run for the Titans, who would even the match at one set apiece with a 25-18 win in the second set.

The third set remained close until North Park took a 12-10 lead, as the Titans would respond by taking six of the next seven points. DiCosola fed Perez for a kill, and Romano and Hartke teamed up for a block to even the set at 12. After a Vikings sideout, Hartke posted back-to-back kills, and a Vikings attack error was followed by another paired block from Hartke and Romano, pushing IWU ahead 16-13. 

The two teams would trade points, but Romano hammered a pass from Reutter home to lock the third set, 25-19, for the Green and White. 

Trailing 9-7 in the fourth, a Myers kill ignited a run that would see Illinois Wesleyan take nine of the next 11 points to take a 16-11 advantage. IWU would never lose control, and consecutive kills from Myers would seal the four set victory for the Titans, winning their first CCIW match of the season.

Illinois Wesleyan 3, Bethany (WV) 0
Illinois Wesleyan's offense stayed hot for its second match of the day, as the Titans swept Bethany (0-17), 25-12, 25-7, 25-11. 

The Titans finished the match with 38 kills while only committing four attack errors to finish with a monstrous .540 attack percentage, smashing the team's single-game attack percentage record, which previously stood at .375, coming against Adrian College Feb. 9, 2024. IWU tied the program's single-game ace record with 14 on the day, while the Bison notched one in the match. The Titans finished with the advantage in assists (34-13), digs (27-19), and blocks (3-2), while limiting the Bison to 13 kills and an even .000 attack percentage. 

Sophomore Hayden Warfield (Dakar, Senegal-Dakar Academy) led the match with a career-best 12 kills on a sizzling .474 attack percentage. Milka added 11 kills on 15 swings with no miscues for a .733 clip.

The Titans saw freshman Ethan Keutzer (St. Louis, Mo.-St. Louis University High) and senior Bradley Benson (Lemont, Ill.-Lemont Township) as the masterminds behind the electric offense. Keutzer posted career-highs of 22 assists and four aces, while Benson notched nine assists and a match-high five aces, tying his career-best. 

On the defensive side, five Titans led the team with four digs. Mucha posted two blocks to lead the Green and White, while three other Titans registered one. 

Milka opened the contest with a kill, courtesy of a dish from Keutzer. Keutzer followed with back-to-back aces before the Bison could notch their first point of the game. After trading points, Warfield knocked in a kill, and Benson followed with two consecutive aces, upping the score to 8-3. 

With the first set score sitting at 11-6, a Bison miscue, followed by Warfield's third kill of the young match, ignited an 8-2 run for the Green and White. Benson found Romano for a kill to push a set point, and freshman Patrick Dasbach (Lombard, Ill.-Willowbrook) hammered one home to lock the first set, 25-12.

Warfield stayed hot in the second set, as he opened it with two straight kills, as the Titans quickly found their groove, jumping out to a 12-3 lead. 

A Milka kill, followed by two aces for the sophomore, upped the score to 23-6. Following a service error from Bethany, a kill from Warfield took the second set, 25-7, for the Titans. 

Wasting no time in the third, Illinois Wesleyan jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Keutzer opened the set with an ace, and Warfield kills sandwiched a block from Milka and senior Alec Mucha (Geneva, Ill.-Geneva), which Milka followed with a kill of his own, before the Bison could force a sideout. 

The damage was already done, as IWU coasted to a 25-11 victory in the third set, with senior Michael Anderson (Plainfield, Ill.-Plainfield Central) hammering his fourth kill of the night to secure the Titans' 10th win of the season. 

Illinois Wesleyan returns to action Wednesday night, March 6, as the Titans travel to Augustana College for a CCIW match. Action is set to begin at 7 p.m. inside Roy J. Carver Center.
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