KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Lady Reds earned one of their biggest wins of the season Tuesday night in a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin showdown, coming from behind to defeat #25 Illinois Wesleyan University in five sets, 3-2, at Tarble Arena.
 
The win keeps the Lady Reds in top half of the standings in the CCIW at 2-1 and 9-8 overall, while dropping the Titas to 4-2 in the conference and 14-6 on the year.
 
"That was a big win for the Lady Reds tonight," said head women's volleyball coach Leanne Ulmer following the exciting win.  "I'm so proud of them.  What a great team win where a lot of kids contributed.  I thought our setters, Abigail McGowan and Ellie LeCount, had a great night and our right sides were fantastic.  We battled through a slow start but Korbakes and Kisten really did a nice job against their two outside hitters, who are very talented… I thought our passing was awesome tonight by Luci, Shannon Kebisek and Mallory and it allowed us to be in our system a lot giving our hitters an opportunity.  As a freshman, Shannon also played really well tonight in a high-pressure situation.  It was just a great team win tonight."
 
After taking an early lead in set one, the Lady Reds saw the lead slip away and found themselves battling back much of the game.  With the Titans looking to pull away, taking multiple two-point leads, the Lady Reds continued to battle to tie the set multiple times late in the set at 19-19 and 21-21.  However the Titans used a 4-0 run out of a timeout, courtesy a couple of over passes by the Lady Reds, to take the opening set even though they were outhit by the Lady Reds .286 to .264.
 
The second set saw Carthage jumped out to an early lead that they never relinquished despite multiple runs by the Titans.  Carthage who led at one point in the set, 19-11, saw Illinois Wesleyan go on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to just three at 19-16.  However the Lady Reds prevailed behind a 6-2 run to end the set at 25-19 to tie the match 1-1.
 
After hitting a combined .250 in the first two sets, the Lady Reds ran into hitting woes early in the third set and found themselves down, 11-3.  Still trailing 16-8 midway through the set, the Lady Reds began mounting a comeback to cut the deficit to four at 23-19.  But the climb out of the hole was too much and Illinois Wesleyan held on to take the third set 25-20 and a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
The Lady Reds came out on the offensive in the must-win fourth set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead and forcing the Titans into an early timeout.  The timeout wouldn't shake the Lady Reds who saw Stephanie Korbakes ignite during a 4-1 run where Korbakes had three of the kills to push the lead to 17-10.   After pushing the lead to nine at 23-14, one last push by the Titans to come back in the set cut the lead to six but Korbakes' sixth kill of the set ended it at 25-18 behind a .417 hitting effort.
 
After an early exchange of points the Lady Reds used strong hitting from their outsides and a service ace from Ellie LeCount to jump out to a 7-4 lead in the fifth set to 15, forcing an IWU timeout.  After switching sides at 8-5, Carthage continued to build the lead with a block by Rachel Mickey and Rachael Kisten followed by a kill by Mallory Parsons to go up 10-5.  Moments later, leading 14-10 Kisten finished the match off with a cross-court kill to give the Lady Reds the match 3-2.
 
On the play of Stephanie Korbakes Ulmer noted, "I think we have been waiting and she has been frustrated.  There is a reason that we were 8-8 before this as we have just had really inconsistent performances.  I know I have had and still have high expectations for Steph, and I know she does too.  But we know we have new setters and new kids around her and hopefully tonight we turned a corner.  But she was tremendous tonight and showed that she is a spark plug that makes us go. 
 
Korbakes finished with her second career 20-kill match, setting a new career-high with 21 kills.  Feeding Korbakes were setters Abigail McGowan with 36 assists and Ellie LeCount with 19. 
 
Defensively, Stefanie Romanowski had a hand in seven blocks to out-do the Titans who managed just four in the match.  Also on the defensive side, Luci Krenzke finished with 24 digs followed by Kebisek with 17.
 
The Lady Reds return to the road for another weekend tournament on Friday, October 14th when Carthage heads to the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for four games beginning with Northland at 6:00 p.m.