BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University men's volleyball team battled in two five-set matches Sunday, Feb. 9, at the IWU Traingular III. The Titans (9-3) dropped its match against Benedictine University, 3-2, before bouncing back to knock off Wabash College, 3-2, in the day's finale.
Illinois Wesleyan fell to BU (5-4) in a match that saw extra points in three sets, ultimately falling 16-25, 27-25, 22-25, 28-26, and 16-14. The Green and White responded with a gutsy five-set triumph over the Little Giants (8-1). IWU took the first two sets handily (25-19 and 25-13) but WC grabbed 25-21 and 25-22 wins to even the match. Illinois Wesleyan finished off the victory, 15-10, in the fifth.
Illinois Wesleyan 2, Benedictine 3
Sophomore Brenden Reutter (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) posted his second straight triple-double, finishing with a team-high 28 assists alongside 12 digs, a career-high 11 kills, and career-best five blocks. Fellow sophomore
Bryce Williams (Chicago, Ill.-Whitney M. Young) added a 15-kill, 12-dig double-double, with freshman
Ethan Kuziela (Chicago, Ill.-Marist) and senior
Ryan Myers (Hawthorn Woods, Ill.-Stevenson) also notching double-digit kills. Kuziela collected a team-high 17 kills on a .389 clip, with Myers contributing 11.
Junior Jace Milka (Bolingbrook, Ill.-Plainfield East) registered a season-high 20 digs, tying his career-best, and added six assists, with freshman
Gavin Rohlwing (Tower Lake, Ill.-Barrington) turning in a team-best seven blocks with seven kills. Senior
Vince DiCosola (Aurora, Ill.-Oswego East) was the team-leader with four aces, rounding out his stat line with 23 assists and seven digs.
As a team, the Titans held the upperhand on the attack with a .244 attacking percentage against the Eagles' .173 clip, resulting in a 65-58 edge in kills for IWU. BU led in blocks, 14-9, and service aces, 9-8. Illinois Wesleyan finished with a 63-56 advantage in digs.
Illinois Wesleyan came out with a high-firing attack in the opening set as the Titans hit .364 to the Eagles' .077 clip to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Benedictine led early on, but Williams tooled a block and Myers slammed a kill to break a tie and push IWU ahead, 6-4.
The run continued as Rohlwing and Reutter combined to form a wall at the net and force a timeout. The Titans secured their fourth straight point behind DiCosola's ace out of the break to double up BU, 8-4.
Williams' kills sandwiched an Eagles' error as the Green and White's lead continued to grow, before Reutter brought about another Benedictine timeout. The sophomore delivered a smart shot to the deep back corner to power IWU ahead, 13-6.
Illinois Wesleyan maintained control as Rohlwing denied a BenU dump set attempt and Myers pounded a kill off the block. After a BU service error pushed it to set point, Reutter sealed the set, 25-16.
The second set featured much more back-and-forth action as the set sat tied 21-21 into an Eagles' timeout. The visitor's came out the reset with back-to-back points to bring about an IWU timeout with the home team trailing, 23-21. Williams put the Titans back on track with a kill and an Eagles' error leveled the score at 23 all. Myers later tied the set, 25-25, but Benedictine finished off the set, 27-25, with an ace to even the match at one set apiece.
The Green and White bounced back in the third, flying out to an 8-2 lead. The early run featured a monstrous kill from Kuziela, four BU errors, and a Myers kill off Kuziela's assist.
The separation hovered around five points for a majority of the set, but a Benedictine block and back-to-back aces saw the Titan lead shrink to three, 23-20. Looking to swing momentum back in the favor of his team, IWU head coach Brandon Mueller called a timeout.
The decision proved timely as Reutter set Myers for a kill for set point, but the effort was followed by consecutive BU points. With their lead down to two, 24-22, the Titans turned to the hot-handed Kuziela as Reutter delivered an assist for the set-clinching kill.
In the fourth set, Benedictine and Illinois Wesleyan played through nine ties before the Eagles pulled away, 16-13. A Titan timeout halted the run and was followed by four straight IWU points. Kuziela fired off three kills over the next four points to push the Green and White ahead, 17-16, into a BenU timeout.
The Eagles regained the lead out of the rest, scoring four of the next five points to grab a 20-18 edge into IWU's second and final timeout. The break successfully iced the Eagles as the serve went straight into the net, but the Titans dropped the next two points.
A kill from Williams and an ace from Reutter held off set-point and knotted the score at 24. The Titans held off another set point with a kill from senior Jake Kougan (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) and a BU error to stand one point away from the match win, 26-25. Back-to-back IWU errors flipped the score to 27-26, Eagles, before an ace sent the match to a decisive fifth set.
Feeding off their fourth-set finish, the Eagles opened the fifth with back-to-back kills. Rohlwing broke the run with a kill of his own off DiCosola's set. Benedictine won the race to eight, holding an 8-3 lead as the team's switched benches.
Kuziela opened the second half of the set with a kill out a timeout, but Benedictine rattled off three straight points to drive ahead, 11-4.
Trailing 12-8 after scoring five of six points, the Titans used a pair of Eagles' miscues to cut the deficit in half, 12-10. The "Bloomington wall" as tabbed by live stream analyst Alex Bardouniotis followed with a Reutter-Rohlwing block and another BU error knotted the match at 12 points each.
After staving off set point, 14-12, courtesy of Benedictine errors, the score leveled once again at 14 all. The comeback fell short though, as a kill and attack error downed the Titans, 16-14.
Illinois Wesleyan 3, Wabash 2
Williams was unstoppable on the attack, cranking out 21 kills on an exceptional .645 clip. Kuziela and Myers went for 13 and 11 kills, respectively. The 21 kills is the third-most in any contest, while his .645 attack percentage broke the program record.
Reutter followed with nine kills, 22 assists, three aces, and seven digs. DiCosola was credited with a team-high 23 assists, while Milka's eight digs topped the team.
Rohlwing once again led the net presence with eight rejections, the third-most in a match in program history. Kuziela added five blocks.
Illinois Wesleyan concluded the match with leads in kills (62-54), hitting percentage (.361-.214), assists (55-50), aces (6-4), and blocks (10-8). Wabash earned a 45-36 advantage in digs.
The Titans overcame the Little Giants early lead in the first set as Williams clobbered a kill for 10-9 lead.
A sneaky dump set from DiCosola was the catalyst as the Green and White gained some distance. Rohlwing and Reutter stuffed Wabash in the next play and Williams slammed down a kill to stretch the lead to three, 17-14.
After Kougan's over-ball kill forced a WC timeout with IWU's lead at four, 19-15.
Illinois Wesleyan took the set, 25-19, closing it out with a Kuziela-Rohlwing block and Wabash miscue.
The Titans were dominant in the second set, breaking away with a Reutter ace to drive IWU in front, 15-11. The Green and White finished the set in a 10-2 run, with Myers eventually notching the gate-winning kill.
After dropping the third and fourth sets, 25-21 and 25-22, respectively, IWU responded in the fifth. Following traded points, the Titan took control of the set early, as DiCosola fed Williams, who had the hot hand all match, for a kill to go ahead, 3-2. Williams notched another kill quickly after, as he smashed a ball sent over prematurely following a Wabash bad set to give the home team a 5-2 lead.
The Titans never trailed the rest of the set, despite the Little Giants' best effort to bring it back within one, 10-9. IWU closed the contest on a 5-1 run that saw a Rohlwing block, an ace from freshman Ben Zima (Glen Ellyn, Ill.-Glenbard South), a Williams kill, and a Wabash miscue closed the match out in favor of the home team, 15-10.
Illinois Wesleyan will enjoy four days of rest before traveling to Springfield, Mass. to compete in the Morgan Classic, hosted by Springfield College. The trip will see the Titans take on Arcadia University Friday night, Feb. 14, before facing either No. 7 Springfield or No. 1 NYU Saturday, Feb. 15. The East Coast adventure will also see Mueller, a 2018 Hall of Fame inductee, make his return to his alma mater where he won two National Championships.
