GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Carthage College women's volleyball team (33-7) fought back from what could have been a devastating fourth set loss to defeat conference foe, Illinois Wesleyan University, in the 2015 NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Regional Championship semifinal match in five sets Friday. 
 
Friday night marked the rubber match in the season series that saw Carthage fall in the regular season Tarble Arena before exacting revenge in the CCIW tournament last weekend. 
 
With the win the Lady Reds return to the regional championship match for the second year in a row, falling in 2014 to this year's regional host, Calvin College. 
 
The first set saw Carthage relinquish multiple leads as Illinois Wesleyan went on impressive runs coming out of timeouts to tie and eventually take a lead late in the set.  Despite being outhit, .200 to .143, Carthage managed to take the first set with a ferocious comeback.  With Carthage leading 21-19, Illinois Wesleyan went on a 5-0 run to take a 24-21 lead that had the Titans looking at double set point.  The Lady Reds responded with a 4-0 run to be looking a set-point of their own.  Carthage finished off the first set comeback three points later when Emily Heuermann landed a kill for the final point of the set.  
 
Carthage's hitting struggles continued in the second set as the Lady Reds were out hit .277 to .170 to allow IWU to even the match at one set apiece.  Tied at 15-15 in the set, the front row duo of Stefanie Romanowski and Stephanie Korbakes earned an assisted block to give the Lady Reds a 16-15 advantage.  However it would be their last as Illinois Wesleyan closedout the second set on a 10-4 run to take the set 25-20.
 
Carthage returned to their fine form from Thursday in the third set as Carthage dominated play in the set for a 25-13 win to go up 2-1 in the match.  Luci Krenzke was everywhere defensively in the set, recording 12 of her match-high 33 digs.  Emily Heuermann led the Lady Reds with eight kills in the set as Carthage hit .333 to Illinois Wesleyan's .024.
 
It looked as though the momentum was all in Carthage's court early in the fourth set as the Lady Reds jumped out to a 5-0 lead forcing an early Illinois Wesleyan timeout and then extended the lead to 11-3 for their biggest lead of the set.  Leading 14-7 over midway through the set Illinois Wesleyan started chipping away at the lead.  First going on an 8-4 run to cut the lead to 15-11.  Then leading 17-14, and coming out of a Titans timeout, Illinois Wesleyan would complete the comeback tying the set at 19-19 and finishing on an 11-6 run to even the match at 2-2.
 
In the fifth set Carthage once again built a commanding lead, going up 9-3 in the first-to-fifteen set.  This time Carthage wouldn't be denied as the Lady Reds finished off Illinois Wesleyan courtesy of two kills by Stefanie Romanowski to end the match.  Romanowski finished the fifth hitting a perfect 1.000 with four kills on her four attacks in the set.
 
Senior setter Karen Chin finished the night 60 assists for the Lady Reds.  Fellow senior Emily Heuermann led the Lady Reds with 20 kills in the match, followed by Jaime Dickinson with 16 and Stefanie Romanowski with 11. 
 
Along with Krenzke's performance defensively, Romanowski, Korbakes, Chin and Bria Hailey who each turned in multiple block performances led the Lady Reds at the net. 
 
The Lady Reds will face Calvin College for a chance to return to Calvin College next weekend for the NCAA Division III Women's Volleyball Championship.  Saturday's match is set for 7:00 p.m. EST/6:00 p.m. CST at Calvin's Van Noord Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan.