Paige Peterson and Cailin Shannon smiling against Webster Sept. 7, 2024

Women’s Volleyball Eyes Trip to Iowa

Titans will play three matches over two days

9/12/2024 10:00:00 AM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team will travel to Iowa for a two-day adventure Friday-Saturday, Sept. 13-14. IWU (4-3) will travel to Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to face Coe and Edgewood College Friday, Sept. 13, at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively. The Green and White will conclude the trip in Mount Vernon, Iowa as the Titans will take on No. 21 Cornell College Saturday, Sept. 14, at 12 p.m.

Illinois Wesleyan enters the weekend off of a three-set loss to No. 4 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Wednesday night, Sept. 11. Junior Taylor French (Romeoville, Ill.-Plainfield East) led the offense with 16 kills, while sophomore Sophia Feeney (Bloomington, Ill.-Normal Community) posted team-highs of 22 assists and four aces. Junior Kannyn Boyd (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.-Mt. Pleasant) recorded a team-best 12 digs to lead the defense, and sophomore Eleanor Palmer's (Chicago, Ill.-DePaul College Prep) four blocks topped the Titans.

French has paced the offense all season, recording 98 kills in 24 sets, an average of 4.08 per set. Freshman Alex Bardouniotis (St. Charles, Ill.-St. Charles North) is second on the squad with 47 kills, while junior Hannah Tellor (Metamora, Ill.-Metamora Township) closely follows with 44. French also leads Illinois Wesleyan with 17 aces, followed by Feeney with 13, and Boyd with nine. IWU has seen a trio of setters orchestrate the offense this season, led by fifth-year Jordan Pierce (Bonfield, Ill.-Herscher) with 101 assists, averaging 6.31 per set. Feeney follows with 73, while senior Abby Erdman (Aurora, Ill.-Metea Valley) has accumulated 57. Erdman and Pierce are both nearing the 1000 career assists mark, with 947 and 843, respectively.

On the defensive side, Boyd's 113 digs lead the Green and White, as the junior is averaging 4.71 per set. French follows with 72, and Pierce's 40 are the third-most on the team. Palmer has posted a team-best 16 blocks, averaging 0.89 per set, and leads IWU with five solo stuffs. Tellor is second with 10 rejections, and senior Morgan Harringon (Plainfield, Ill.-Plainfield East) closely trails with nine.

The Titans open the weekend with a bout with the Kohawks (4-3), who enter the contest off a sweep over Cornell Wednesday night, Sept. 11. IWU and Coe will meet for the 12th time since 2004, with the Green and White holding a 9-2 record in the series. Coe took the most recent meeting in five sets Oct. 1, 2022, ending IWU's five-game win streak in the series. French led the team with 25 kills, and posted a double-double alongside 17 digs. Erdman and Pierce put together the offense, totaling 30 and 26 assists, respectively.

IWU will face Edgewood for just the fourth time in program history with the series dating back to 1997, and has taken all three previous meetings. The two squads will meet for the first time since 2012, a match that saw the Titans walk away with the win in four sets. The Eagles most recently fell to No. 11 University of La Verne in five sets Saturday, Sept. 7, dropping their record to 2-5.

Closing the trip at Cornell, IWU enters the contest with a slim, 3-2, advantage in the series that began in 2009. The Rams were the winners of the last meeting, taking the match in straight sets Oct. 1, 2022. Erdman led the Green and White with 16 assists in the match, followed closely by Pierce with 13. Cornell fell to Coe in three sets Wednesday night, Sept. 11, dropping to 4-4. The Rams will face North Central College Friday night, Sept. 13, before hosting the Titans.

Links for all streams and live stats for the road trip can be found on iwusports.com, or by clicking here.

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