McLean County Times

Facing a top-five nationally ranked team, the Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team fought hard but ultimately fell to the fourth-ranked University of Wisconsin Whitewater on the road in straight sets, 26-24, 26-24, 25-14. With this loss, the Titans' record drops to 4-3 overall, while UW-Whitewater remains unbeaten at 8-0.

Illinois Wesleyan led in kills (35-24), digs (40-39), and aces (9-6). Both teams had six blocks and 32 assists each. However, a significant margin in attack errors (29-15) proved costly for the Green and White.

Junior Taylor French from Romeoville, Illinois posted a match-high of 16 kills to lead IWU offensively. Junior Hannah Tellor from Metamora, Illinois followed with seven kills on a .313 attack percentage. Freshman Alex Bardouniotis from St. Charles, Illinois contributed four kills. Sophomore Sophia Feeney from Bloomington, Illinois paced the Titan offense with team-highs of 22 assists and four aces, setting a new career-best.

Junior Kannyn Boyd from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan led defensively with 12 digs after earning College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Defensive Player of the Week honors. French and senior Abby Erdman from Aurora, Illinois tied for second on the squad with seven digs each. At the net, sophomore Eleanor Palmer from Chicago led IWU with four total blocks. Fellow sophomore Cailin Shannon from Bloomingdale followed with three blocks while Tellor and senior Morgan Harrington each posted two rejections.

In the first set, IWU fell behind 4-0 before Bardouniotis scored to get them on the board. The Titans gained momentum as French followed a Warhawks miscue with back-to-back kills to even the match. The set remained close until Feeney recorded two straight aces giving IWU an 11-9 advantage.

Despite several key plays including incredible digs by Boyd and timely points by Bardouniotis and Shannon, UW-Whitewater managed to secure a narrow victory in both opening sets by identical scores of 26-24.

The third set saw UW-Whitewater dominate with a final score of 25-14 to complete their sweep over IWU.

Illinois Wesleyan will travel to Iowa for three matches over two days starting at Coe College in Cedar Rapids against Coe and Edgewood on Friday, Sept. 13 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively. They will conclude their trip facing No. 21 Cornell College in Mount Vernon on Saturday, Sept. 14 at noon.

Further information regarding these matches can be found on the IWU women's volleyball schedule page on iwusports.com.