McLean County Times

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The Illinois Wesleyan University women's volleyball team will travel to Iowa for a two-day event on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 13-14. IWU (4-3) will compete against Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, facing Coe and Edgewood College on Friday at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively. The Titans will conclude the trip in Mount Vernon, Iowa with a match against No. 21 Cornell College on Saturday at 12 p.m.

Illinois Wesleyan enters the weekend following a three-set loss to No. 4 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Wednesday night, Sept. 11. Junior Taylor French led the offense with 16 kills, while sophomore Sophia Feeney posted team-highs of 22 assists and four aces. Junior Kannyn Boyd recorded a team-best 12 digs to lead the defense, and sophomore Eleanor Palmer's four blocks topped the Titans.

French has been leading the offense this season, recording 98 kills in 24 sets, averaging 4.08 per set. Freshman Alex Bardouniotis is second on the squad with 47 kills, while junior Hannah Tellor closely follows with 44. French also leads Illinois Wesleyan with 17 aces, followed by Feeney with 13 and Boyd with nine. The team has seen contributions from three setters this season, led by fifth-year Jordan Pierce with 101 assists, averaging 6.31 per set. Feeney follows with 73 assists, while senior Abby Erdman has accumulated 57 assists.

On the defensive side, Boyd's 113 digs lead the team as she averages 4.71 per set. French follows with 72 digs and Pierce has contributed with 40 digs, making her third-most on the team. Palmer has posted a team-best of 16 blocks, averaging .89 per set and leads IWU with five solo blocks; Tellor is second with ten rejections and senior Morgan Harrington closely trails with nine.

The Titans will open their weekend against Coe College (4-3), who enter off a sweep over Cornell on Wednesday night, Sept.11. IWU and Coe will meet for the twelfth time since their series began in 2004; IWU holds a record of nine wins to two losses against Coe but lost their most recent meeting in five sets on Oct.1,2022.

IWU will face Edgewood for just the fourth time in program history since their series began in1997; IWU has won all three previous meetings including their last encounter in2012 which saw them win in four sets.The Eagles recently fell to No11 University of La Verne dropping their record to2-5.

Concluding their trip at Cornell,IWU enters holding a slim3-2 advantage in their series that began in2009.Cornell was victorious during their last meeting winning straight sets on Oct1 ,2022.Cornell fell to Coe recently dropping them to4-4 before hosting North Central College Friday night ahead of facing IWU .

Links for streams and live stats for all matches can be found at iwusports.com.

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