The Carthage College women's volleyball team (26-3, 5-0 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin), ranked 14th in the Oct. 21 American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III poll, went 3-1 at the Friday-Saturday, Oct. 24-25 Wisconsin-Oshkosh Invitational at the Kolf Sports Center in Oshkosh, Wis. The Lady Reds split a pair of matches on Friday, Oct. 24, losing to Loras College (12-16), 3-2, before defeating No. 27 Wisconsin-Oshkosh (25-5), 3-1. The Duhawks' winning set scores over the Lady Reds were 19-25, 14-25, 25-21, 26-24 and 15-13, and Carthage's winning scores over UW-Oshkosh were 25-14, 25-17, 19-25 and 25-14.
On Saturday, Oct. 25, Carthage defeated No. 36 Wartburg College (20-9), 3-1, before sweeping Clarke University (20-12), 3-0. The Lady Reds' winning scores over the Knights were 25-17, 18-25, 25-15 and 25-14, while their winning scores over the Crusaders were 25-17, 25-19 and 25-20. The win over Clarke marked the 400th career victory for Lady Reds head coach
Leanne Ulmer (400-117, .774 winning percentage, 13 years thru Oct. 27).
In the Loras contest,
Rachel Fields (Sr., Chicago, Ill./Oak Park-Fenwick) led the Lady Reds with a match-high 17 kills, along with 14 digs and two block assists.
Bria Hailey (Jr., Hanover Park, Ill./Schaumburg) had 13 kills with a .400 attack percentage, and
Emily Heuermann (Jr. Washington, Ill.) added 11 kills.
Hannah Cahoon (Sr., Watertown, Wis./Watertown) collected 19 digs and
Karen Chin (Jr., Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) had 49 assists. In the win over Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the Lady Reds jumped out to leads of 9-2 in the first set and 14-4 in the fourth.
Mallory Parsons (Fr., Lake Zurich, Ill.) had a match-high 16 kills and hit .300, while Fields had 10 kills with two block solos and two block assists. Cahoon collected 15 digs and Chin 43 assists.
Fields had 11 kills and hit. 231 in the win over Wartburg, while
Stefanie Romanowski (So., Kenosha, Wis./Bradford) collected nine kills with a .286 mark, six block solos and a block assist. Romanowski's six block solos tied a Carthage four-set match record set by Mary Schwartz versus Millikin University on Oct. 24, 1995. Fields and Heuermann each had nine kills in the sweep of Clarke, with Chin collecting 32 assists. Cahoon and Chin were named to the all-tournament team.
Carthage plays host to CCIW-opponent North Park University (8-20, 0-6 CCIW) on Tuesday, Oct. 28 in a 7 p.m. match at Tarble Arena in Kenosha, Wis.