Men's Volleyball huddle against CUW Jan. 16, 2025

Men’s Volleyball Hosts Marian to Kick Off Homestand Stretch

Tuesday’s match will be the first of seven straight home contests

1/27/2025 12:00:00 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - After back-to-back road matches, the Illinois Wesleyan University men's volleyball team hosts Marian University Tuesday night, Jan. 28, for a 7 p.m. contest inside the Shirk Center. The match will be the first of seven straight home contests for the Titans (4-1), including four matches this week.

Illinois Wesleyan enters the battle against the Sabres (5-0) off a loss to Aurora University Thursday, Jan. 23, the first defeat of the season for the Titans. Falling in straight sets, IWU saw sophomore Bryce Williams (Chicago, Ill.-Whitney M. Young) finish with a team-high six kills, while senior Vince DiCosola (Aurora, Ill.-Oswego East) totaled a team-high 11 assists. Junior Jace Milka (Bolingbrook, Ill.-Plainfield East) led the team with eight digs.

Through five matches, the Titan offense has seen senior Ryan Myers (Hawthorn Woods, Ill.-Stevenson) and freshman Gavin Rohlwing (Tower Lake, Ill.-Barrington) lead the team in kills, with each having totaled 25 on the season. Freshman Ethan Kuziela (Chicago, Ill.-Marist) closely follows with 24, and is averaging 2.67 per set.

Sophomore Brenden Reutter (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) has a team-best seven aces, followed by Rohlwing and Kuziela with five apiece. As a team, IWU leads the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, and is 10th nationally in aces per set with an average of 2.12. DiCosola leads the team with 62 assists on the season, averaging 3.88 per set. Reutter is second with 42, followed by Kuziela's 21.

On the defensive side, Milka leads the Green and White in digs with 32, an average of 1.88 per set. Myers is second on the squad with 26, averaging two per set, while DiCosola sits in third with 16. The Titans have seen a strong net defense, led by senior Jake Kougan (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) with 13 blocks. Kougan's average of one block per set ranks 26th in Division III. Rohlwing is second with 11 rejections, and Reutter's eight blocks are good for third on the team. The trio has helped Illinois Wesleyan average 2.06 blocks per set, the 26th-best average in the country. IWU's strong defensive approach has wreaked havoc on its opponents so far this season, as the Titans are ranked eighth nationally in opponent hitting percentage, limiting teams to a .108 clip.

Marian enters the contest with an unblemished, 5-0, record, most recently defeating Adrian College in four sets Saturday, Jan. 25. The two teams will meet for the second time, with the first duel coming back on Feb. 12, 2022. The Titans fell in four sets on the road. Now-assistant coach Mike Eastman led the offense with 14 kills, tying for a match-high. Then-freshman Luke Hartke (Barrington, Ill.-Barrington) was second with seven, while adding six digs on defense.

A link to the live stream, which will feature the duo of Matt Sosler and women's volleyball freshman Alex Bardouniotis on the air, can be found here, and live stats can be accessed by clicking here.

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