By WJBC Staff
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The 2015 Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team became the first in school’s history to win an NCAA Division III tournament match, sweeping Dominican 3-0 in the first round at Van Noord Arena on the Calvin College campus in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Making their first NCAA appearance since 1998, the Titans won by scores of 25-18, 25-18, 25-22 to improve to 23-9, the most wins for an IWU team since the 2006 team won 24 games. IWU will face conference rival Carthage (32-7) at 4 p.m. (Central) Saturday in the NCAA Division III regional semifinals.
On Friday, Illinois Wesleyan never trailed in any of the three sets and Dominican tied IWU at 7-7 and 8-8 in the second set before the Titans pulled away. IWU hit .233 in the match, making 47 kills in 133 attempts with 16 errors while Dominican had a .106 hitting percentage with 32 kills and 18 errors in 132 swings.
Sophomore Kyleigh Block paced IWU with 14 kills and had 17 digs with freshman Tyler Brown accounting for 13 kills and making 18 digs. Block and Brown each had one service ace and freshman Leah Seielstad had two service aces and 17 set assists.
Senior Mary Rankin was the team leader with 27 digs and freshman Heidi Dague led IWU with five total blocks while giving seven kills.
Junior Colleen Rynne had a team-best 20 assists and sophomores Anne Cummings and Maisy Bowden each had three blocks.
The Stars saw their season end with a 25-10 record. Kendyl Todd and Rosalyn Wise each had eight kills to lead Dominican with Christina Wilson making a match-best 24 assists.
The Lady Reds got a three-set win Friday over Wis.-LaCrosse (20-10) by scores of 25-22, 25-16, 25-13. Carthage ousted Illinois Wesleyan from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin tournament last Friday, winning in three sets.
Postseason honors
Illinois Wesleyan head coach Kim Nelson-Brown was selected as the Midwest Region “Coach of the Year” while sophomore Kyleigh Block was named to the first team and Tyler Brown earned “Freshman of the Year” honors as the American Volleyball Coaches Association announced its Division III Regional Awards on Thursday, Nov. 12.
Block, who was a first team all- College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin selection, will advance to the 2015 AVCA Division III All-America ballot. She is second on the team with 370 digs and has a team-best .255 hitting percentage. She has 377 digs and leads IWU with 36 service aces.
Brown was a second team all-CCIW honoree and earned the league’s “Freshman of the Year” award. She lead the Titans with 393 kills and has a .243 hitting percentage. She is second on the squad with 385 digs.
This is the 20th season for Nelson-Brown as Illinois Wesleyan’s head coach and she takes home AVCA Region Coach of the Year honors for the first time. The Titans were CCIW tri-champions and earned their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998. This season marked the first time in program history for IWU to cracked the AVCA Coaches Poll and they were ranked No. 23 heading into the national tournament.
