McLean County Times

The Illinois Wesleyan University men's volleyball team is set to host its final home tournament of the season, the IWU Triangular II, on Saturday, March 2. The Titans will compete against Bethany College and North Park University in this event. The day's matches will see Illinois Wesleyan (8-7, 0-1 CCIW) facing North Park (3-11, 0-1 CCIW) at 1 p.m., followed by a match against Bethany College (0-16) at 5 p.m.

Illinois Wesleyan recently faced a three-set defeat against Loras College on February 28. Freshman Bryce Williams led the team with seven kills and two aces. Brenden Reutter contributed with a team-high of 12 assists and also added two aces.

Senior Michael Eastman is leading the Titans with a total of 157 kills this season, averaging 3.27 per set. He is close to reaching a personal milestone of 800 career kills, currently standing at 798. Williams follows with 122 kills, while junior Jake Kougan has recorded 83.

Junior Vince DiCosola is approaching another milestone for the Titans as he nears the mark of 1,000 career assists. DiCosola currently has accumulated 954 assists, including 229 this season alone. Reutter holds the second spot for assists this season with a total of 200.

Defensively, sophomore Jace Milka leads with 138 digs at an average of 2.71 per set. Eastman and Williams follow with dig counts of 80 and 65 respectively. Kougan and senior Javier Romano have each recorded the highest number of blocks for Illinois Wesleyan at 34 apiece.

The opening match against North Park marks their ninth encounter in program history; North Park leads the series with seven wins to Illinois Wesleyan's one victory from March last year. In that previous meeting, Eastman achieved eleven kills while Perez and Ryan Myers contributed significantly as well.

Bethany College will be competing against Illinois Wesleyan for the first time during their inaugural collegiate season after recently losing to Hiram College in straight sets earlier this week.

Further details about IWU Triangular II are available online including links for live streaming and statistics.