BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team began College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play with a sweep (25-21, 25-14, 25-15) of Wheaton College Wednesday night, Sept. 18, inside the Shirk Center. With the win, Illinois Wesleyan improved to 7-4 on the season and 1-0 in league play. On the flip side, Wheaton (8-3, 0-1 CCIW) saw its three-match win streak snapped.

The Titans overwhelmed the Thunder in nearly every facet statistically. IWU tallied 50 kills to Wheaton's 26, while the Green and White hit an astonishing .417 as a team, the eighth-best clip in a match in program history. The Thunder finished with a .169 clip. The Titans controlled assists (46-22), aces (6-1), blocks (7-2), and digs (44-33). 

Senior Abby Erdman (Aurora, Ill.-Metea Valley), who notched the 1000th assist of her career, shared setting duties with sophomore Sophia Feeney (Bloomington, Ill.-Normal Community). Erdman tallied 17 assists and four digs, while Feeney collected a match-high 24 assists to go along with two aces and five digs. The setting duo was fueled by an outstanding all-around attack. Junior Taylor French (Romeoville, Ill.-Plainfield East) racked up a match-leading 18 kills on a hefty .615 hitting percentage, the seventh-best mark in a match in program history. Senior Morgan Harrington (Plainfield, Ill.-Plainfield East) added seven kills on a .500 clip. Freshman Alex Bardouniotis (St. Charles, Ill.-St. Charles North) contributed nine kills, while junior Hannah Tellor (Metamora, Ill.-Metamora Township) added eight. 

French paced IWU's defense with nine digs, narrowly missing a double-double, and two blocks. Sophomore Eleanor Palmer (Chicago, Ill.-DePaul College Prep) led the squad with three rejections, while Tellor tacked on two. Freshman Alysa Lawton (Elmhurst, Ill.-IC Catholic Prep) and junior Kanyn Boyd (Mt. Pleasant, Mich.-Mt. Pleasant) shared libero responsibilities, tallying eight and six digs, respectively.

In the opening set, Bardouniotis broke a 9-9 tie with a kill and promptly followed with an ace to give IWU a two-point edge. French came through with a kill to extend the lead to three and bring about a Thunder timeout. IWU went on to extend the lead to as many as five as a Tellor tip put the Green and White in front, 19-14. Wheaton stormed back though, forcing an IWU timeout with the lead trimmed to one, 20-19. Head Coach Kim Nelson-Brown's reset proved pivotal as Tellor got the Titans back on track before French and Jordan Pierce (Bonfield, Ill.-Herscher) kills pushed the score to set point, 24-21, in favor of the home team. After a quick timeout from Wheaton, Palmer notched the set-winning kill.

Illinois Wesleyan's momentum carried into the second set, where Feeney aced the Thunder for a 9-5 lead. French powered a kill to keep the Green and White rolling. Back-to-back stuffs involving Palmer, the first with Harrington and the second with French, stretched the lead to seven, 16-9. Tellor's kill gave IWU a double-digit advantage, 23-12, before an Erdman dump set and Feeney ace wrapped up the 25-14 win.

The Titans doubled up the Thunder, 8-4, in the early goings of the third set. French registered a kill on a set by Erdman to give Illinois Wesleyan a four-point advantage as Erdman hit the 1000-career assist mark. The Green and White's lead stretched to five on a Harrington-Tellor rejection before a WC service error and Bardouniotis tool upped the lead to six, 13-7. A hammer of a swing by French maintained the six-point lead, 16-10, as the Titans rolled to a 25-15 victory to complete the sweep.

IWU travels to Aurora University Saturday, Sept. 21, to take on University of Dubuque before facing Aurora in a triangular. The Titans and UD will face off at 2:30 p.m. before concluding the trip against AU at 5 p.m.