Men’s Volleyball Opens Season at Concordia Chicago

Titans take on Cougars at 7 p.m.

1/14/2026 12:00:00 PM

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University men's volleyball team will open its 2026 season at Concordia University Chicago Thursday night, Jan. 15. Action is set to begin at 7 p.m. inside Geiseman Gymnasium. The match will mark the sixth season of Titan men's volleyball, and will begin a stretch of five straight road contests.

Illinois Wesleyan returns 14 from its 2025 season that saw the Green and White post a program-best 12 wins. The Titans finished the year 12-12, and opened the season with a program-best start of four wins. Highlighting the returners is sophomore Gavin Rohlwing (Tower Lake, Ill.-Barrington), who became the second Titan to earn All-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin honors after being named to the second team. Thursday night's match will be the first collegiate competition for IWU's 12 freshmen.

The Titans return their top four hitters from a season ago. Junior Bryce Williams (Chicago, Ill.-Whitney M. Young) led the squad with 228 kills, an average of 2.89 per set. Sophomore Ethan Kuziela (Chicago, Ill.-Marist) looks to add on a strong freshman campaign in which he finished second on the team with 155 kills, averaging 2.38 per set. Rohlwing tallied 145 on a program-best .336 attack percentage in his first collegiate season. Junior Brenden Reutter (Frankfort, Ill.-Lincoln-Way East) rounds out the top four hitters, as he posted 133 kills. During his sophomore campaign, Reutter led the team in assists (396) and aces (22).

Defensively, IWU also brings back its top four finishers in digs. The Green and White's lone senior Jace Milka (Bolingbrook, Ill.-Plainfield East) posted a team-best 155 digs last season, an average of 1.85 per set. Williams finished second with 142, followed by 137 from Reutter. Sophomore Ben Zima (Glen Ellyn, Ill.-Glenbard South) notched 99 digs in his first season for the Titans. Rohlwing registered a team-best 81 blocks, including 19 solo stuffs, as he averaged an impressive 1.13 blocks per set.

Illinois Wesleyan will face Concordia Chicago for the fourth time, with the inaugural matchup occurring in 2022. The Green and White have come away victorious in all three previous meetings, including a sweep a season ago Jan. 30, 2025. The contest saw Rohlwing and the Titans break the program's block record for a three-set match. Rohlwing posted a career-best nine stuffs, which ranks second in any match all-time, while the team finished with 12. Reutter tallied a team-best 18 assists, along with six kills on seven swings, en route to orchestrating an offense that hit .259 on the night. Williams notched a team-leading eight digs to guide the back row defense. The match will also serve as the season opener for the Cougars.

CUC will be providing a live stream of the contest, which can be found here, while live stats can be accessed by clicking here.

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