KENOSHA, Wis. – The Carthage College Lady Reds dropped their final regular season match on Tuesday night at Tarble Arena, falling to #12 Illinois Wesleyan University in four sets, 3-1.
 
The loss drops the Lady Reds to 20-9 on the season and to 7-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, while the Titans win the CCIW title with an 8-0 conference record and 23-5 overall record.
 
The Lady Reds struggled attacking all night, hitting just .112 in the loss with three sets under .200, while falling behind 2-1 through three sets, including a first set -.114 with 11 errors to just seven kills.  The Lady Reds finally righted the ship in the fourth set with a .231 attack, but the Titans hit .256 to take the set and match.  Carthage finished with 54 kills but committed 34 attack errors, while Illinois Wesleyan had 53 kills to 22 errors.
 
Shannon Kebisek and Megan Behrendt led the Lady Reds in kills with 20 and 15 respectively, while freshman Nicole Acton had the strongest night from a hitting percentage, finishing with six kills and just one error on nine attempts from the middle for a .556 attack.
 
Defensively, the Lady Reds were led by five players in double figures with digs, as Behrendt had 18, Ellie LeCount and Laura de Rosales had 17, Kaila Johanson had 16 and Kebisek had twelve.
 
The Lady Reds, who will be the number-two seed in the upcoming 2018 CCIW Tournament, will open their postseason on Friday in the first semifinal of the evening when they take on the winner of North Park University and Carroll University.  Friday's semifinal is set for 4:30 p.m.