Box Score  The Carthage College women's volleyball team (25-12, 5-2 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin), ranked 31st in the Oct. 30 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, saw its season come to an end on Friday night, Nov. 2 with a 3-2 loss to Wheaton College (Ill., 13-22, 2-5 CCIW) in the semifinals of the CCIW Women's Volleyball Tournament at Elmhurst College's R.A. Faganel Hall in Elmhurst, Ill. 

The Thunder's winning set scores over the Lady Reds were 25-23, 19-25, 25-19, 19-25 and 15-13.  Top-seeded and No. 9 Elmhurst (28-7) swept fourth-seeded Millikin University (25-10), 3-0, on Friday in the other semifinal match with winning set scores of 25-11, 25-12 and 25-22.  Elmhurst (28-7) takes on Wheaton (Ill., 13-22) in Saturday's championship match, beginning at 2 p.m.
 
Second-seeded Carthage qualified for the tournament on Tuesday night, Oct. 30 with a 3-2 win over seventh-seeded Augustana College (Ill., 20-11, 2-5 CCIW) in a tournament play-in match at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.  The Lady Reds' winning set scores over the Vikings were 25-14, 25-27, 25-23, 23-25 and 15-13.  In the other three play-in matches, top-seeded Elmhurst (27-7, 7-0 CCIW) swept eighth-seeded North Park University (7-23, 0-7 CCIW), 3-0; sixth-seeded Wheaton (Ill., 12-22, 2-5 CCIW) upset third-seeded North Central College (23-11, 5-2 CCIW), 3-1; and fourth-seeded Millikin (25-9, 4-3 CCIW) swept fifth-seeded Illinois Wesleyan University (18-15, 3-4 CCIW), 3-0.
 
With the loss in the semifinals, Carthage missed qualifying for the tournament-championship match for the first time since 2004.  The Lady Reds had won the last six tournament titles since losing to Elmhurst in the 2005 championship match. 

In the semifinal-match loss, the opening set was tied 10 times before Wheaton took the final two points to break a 23-23 tie.  The Lady Reds led set two almost from the start and inched away to a six-point win, 25-19.  Carthage had a 10-6 lead in set three.  Wheaton broke a 17-17 tie with four unanswered points to take a 21-17 lead and went on to win by six, 25-19.
 
Carthage had a 15-11 lead in the fourth set.  Wheaton pulled to within one, 17-16, before the Lady Reds opened up a four-point lead, 20-16, and went on to win by six, 25-19.  Carthage fell behind in the fifth-and-final set, 7-4, before tying things up at 10-10.  Following ties at 11-11 and 12-12, the Thunder took a 13-12 lead on a Bria Hailey attack error.  A kill by Wheaton's Andy DeMoss made it 14-12, but Hailey recovered with a kill to make it 14-13.  An attack error by Carthage's Emily Heuermann and a block by DeMoss gave the Thunder a 15-13 decision and the 3-2 win.

Andy DeMoss led Wheaton with 16 kills and a .325 attack percentage.  Madeline Taylor had 13 kills and hit .355, while Emily Buyse had 11 kills and hit .526 (11-1-19).  Setter Lauren Wilhite collected six blocks (1 solo, 5 assisted) and averaged 10.6 assists per set.  For Carthage, Angelica Walinski (Jr., Skokie, Ill./Niles North), who was named to the all-tournament team, had a match-high 19 kills and hit .255.  Genelle McFarland (Fr., Watertown, Wis.) had 13 kills with a .250 attack percentage , Emily Heuermann (Fr., Washington, Ill.) 12 kills and Rachel Fields (So., Chicago, Ill./Oak Park-Fenwick) 11 kills with a .276 mark.  Setter Karen Chin (Fr., Mundelein, Ill.) averaged 11.0 assists per set. 

“We're very disappointed,” said Carthage coach Leanne Ulmer.  “Wheaton played well, and they played well at the end of the year.  They blocked really well, and we played well in spurts.  At the end, we couldn't get the kill to tie the set, 14-14.  We wanted to get into the finals and give ourselves a chance at an NCAA berth.  While you're always hopeful about a bid, we probably have no shot, considering how many in-region losses we have  This was a very young team and new bunch of players,  I knew this would be a different kind of year.  Some good things happened this year, and hopefully we can get back into things next year.  We lost our whole starting lineup this year, and then Katie Stensland tore her ACL in Tuesday's play-in match.  For a young group, we got a lot out of this team, and they know they can do better.”

Carthage did not receive an at-large berth when the 64-team NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship field was announced on Nov. 5.  CCIW-champion and No. 9 Elmhurst College (29-7) will play host to the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship at R.A. Faganel Hall in Elmhurst, Ill., on Friday-Sunday, Nov. 9-11.  The Bluejays will take on Webster University (24-9) in a Nov. 9 quarterfinal match.  In the three other quarterfinal contests, No. 16 the University of Chicago will play Benedictine University (Ill., 30-4), the College of Mount St. Joseph (14-14) takes on No. 1 Washington University (Mo., 29-3), and No. 18 Wisconsin-Whitewater (25-11) plays Thomas More College (26-5).