MILWAUKEE, Wisc.- The IU South Bend Titans (5-11, 3-2 CCAC) defeated the Cardinal Stritch Wolves (7-6, 2-3 CCAC) in five sets 25-15, 11-25, 26-24, 21-25, 16-14. Thursday night's win moves the Titans into a tie for 4th place in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) with IU Northwest.
The first set of the match was dominated from the start by the Titans, as IU South Bend jumped out to a 5-0 lead to begin the game. Cardinal Stritch saw their smallest deficit at 8-4, before the Titans rattled off four straight points. The Wolves would not come within seven points of the Titans for the remainder of the set. The night's first set was capped off with a kill from
Abby Seeger, assisted by
McKenzie Powell, a tandem that is coming very familiar to IU South Bend fans.
Set two favored Cardinal Stritch, as they tied the match 1-1. The Wolves scored in bunches, scoring at least four consecutive points three different times.
Set three was a back and forth affair, as the game was tied on 13 separate occasions. Down 24-22, IU South Bend scored four points in a row, to go up two sets to one. The rally was sparked by three attack errors from Cardinal Stritch and a kill from
Abby Seeger, one of her match and season-high 24 kills in the contest.
Set four was knotted at 14-14 before the Wolves scored 11 of the next 18 points, to win the set and send the match to a pivotal winner take all 5th set.
The night's fifth and final set found Titans fans on the edge of their seat. Losing 10-4, Coach
Alison Derdzinski called a timeout which sparked IU South Bend to score five of the next six points. Down to their final point at 14-12, the Titans scored the next four points of the set to win 16-14. The late rally was fueled by kills from
Abby Seeger and
Felisha Campanello, assisted by
McKenzie Powell to give her a season-high of 43 assists in the contest.
The IU South Bend Titans look to extend their conference winning streak to three games, as they take on Trinity International University on Tuesday, September 27th, at 8:00 P.M.