BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The top-ranked Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team hosts Carthage College in its final College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin home match of the regular season Tuesday, Oct. 21. First serve between the 20-1 (7-0 CCIW) Titans and 15-6 (4-0 CCIW) Firebirds is set for 7 p.m. inside the Shirk Center. 

The Green and White remained at the top of the American Volleyball Coaches Association Coaches' Poll after its 4-0 week, sweeping North Park, UW-Stevens Point, Lawrence and then No. 2 UW-Oshkosh. Illinois Wesleyan raked in 1889 points and 65 first-place votes, while Centre snagged 10 first-place nods and 1747 points, jumping three spots into the second spot. UWO fell to third after its loss to the Green and White with 1726 points. Colby and Carnegie Mellon finished out the four and five spots with 1508 and 1467 points, respectively.

A big week for the Titans brought in individual awards for junior Alysa Lawton (Elmhurst, Ill.-IC Catholic  Prep) and classmate junior Juliana Valdez (Palos Heights, Ill.-Marist). Lawton was named the AVCA National Player of the Week for the first time in her career and the conference's defensive player of the week for the fourth time this season. She is the first libero to win national player of the week this season and the sixth Titan all-time. Valdez was named CCIW Offensive Player of the Week, hitting .475 with 22 kills, and delivering defensively with 14 total blocks, 11 block assists and three solos.

The duo have led the defensive efforts for the Titans all season with Lawton at 18th nationally, and first in conference, with 5.47 digs per set. Over the season, the junior has tallied 416 digs, 95 assists and 20 service aces. With Lawton defending the back row, Valdez has handled the front with a team-leading 64 total blocks this season. Her 51 block assists make up a team high and her 13 solo blocks are tied with senior Eleanor Palmer (Chicago, Ill.-IC Catholic Prep) who has racked up 55 total rejections this season. Lawton, Valdez, and the rest of the defense have held opponents to a .137 attack percentage. 

Offensively, Illinois Wesleyan ranks third in the country in kills per set with 13.67 and climbed to seventh in assists per set with 12.50. Senior Alex Bardouniotis (St. Charles, Ill.-St. Charles North) leads an even-handed attack for IWU. She leads the team with 3.29 kills per set with 250 kills. Over the weekend, the junior surpassed 1000 points for her career with 303 this season. Senior Cailin Shannon (Bloomingdale, Ill.-Lake Park) has seen her numbers rise with a solid weekend. She has 2.01 kills per set with 149 total. Sophomore Carly Whitaker 's (Morton, Ill.-Morton) left arm has stayed busy with 191 kills for 2.62 per set. Junior Graci Junis (Morton, Ill.-Morton) has fit in with the offense with 2.49 points per set. She's tallied 152 kills for 2.03 per set.

A strong candidate for the conference's setter of the week for her performances over the weekend, senior Sophia Feeney (Bloomington, Ill.-Normal Community) leads the assists category for IWU with 438 and 5.76 per set. Her counterpart, sophomore Lauren O'Brien (Bloomington, Ill.-Central Catholic), has dished out 326 assists and 4.79 per set. 

The two have met 55 times since 1995 with Carthage holding a 30-25 record in the series. The Green and White have won six out of the last seven meetings over the Firebirds, sweeping two of the last three. A season ago, Illinois Wesleyan defeated CC 3-1 in the regular season before sweeping the Firebirds at the Shirk Center in the CCIW Tournament Championship to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Bardouniotis led the charge with nine kills while Whitaker punched in six. The meeting also marks the first ever CCIW competition other than baseball with two head coaches over 600 wins in their respective careers with IWU's Kim Nelson-Brown and Carthage's Leanne Ulmer. 

The critical CCIW contest takes place Wednesday, Oct. 20 at the Shirk Center with first serve at 7 p.m. A livestream of the match with Michael Eganhouse and Lucy Tomlinson can be found on cciwnetwork.com while live stats are available here.