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January 11
Illinois Wesleyan junior Molly May, the “Player of the Year” in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, was named the “Most Valuable Player” for the 2004 Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team. May set a school record with 222 blocks and led IWU in kills and hitting percentage last fall. May and fellow junior Lindsay Clements were chosen to serve as co-captains for the 2005 Titans. In other team honors, Christine Konopasek earned the “Titan Volleyball Strength Award” and Kristy White was the winner of the team's "Most Inspirational Player" honor for the third straight season. Colleen Ernst and Sarah Vegter were the co-winners of the squad’s “Most Improved Player” honor.
November 8
Illinois Wesleyan junior Molly May has been named “Player of the Year” for volleyball in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin while three of her teammates also earned all-league notice.
Senior Christine Konopasek and freshman Jenna Passananti were selected to the second team and sophomore Nicole Walsh was chosen to the third team in voting done by league coaches.
A second-team all-CCIW selection last fall, May is the fourth Illinois Wesleyan player to earn the league’s top honor since play started in 1986, joining Kirstin Rajala (1989), Kellie Schmidt (1999), and Beth Crowley last season.
In other league honors, Elmhurst’s Julie Hall was chosen "Coach of the Year" and Carthage’s Kelly Bauer was tabbed as the league's "Newcomer of the Year."
A second-team all-CCIW selection last fall, May is the fourth Illinois Wesleyan player to earn the league’s top honor since play started in 1986, joining Kirstin Rajala (1989), Kellie Schmidt (1999), and Beth Crowley last season.
A 6-foot-1 outside hitter from Mt. Prospect (HS), May was fourth in the league with 1.38 blocks per game and eighth with 3.12 kills per game. Her .307 hitting percentage was fifth best in the conference.
Konopasek, a 5-foot-11 outside hitter from Chicago (Marian Catholic HS), finished conference play with 2.56 kills per game and a .165 hitting percentage. She also had 3.72 digs per game, .24 service aces and .64 blocks per game.
Passananti, a setter from Western Springs (LaGrange Lyons HS), was fourth in the conference in set assists with 10.81 per game and was tenth in the CCIW with .38 service aces per game.
Walsh, a 5-foot-11 middle hitter from Lemont (HS), was third in the league with 1.79 blocks per game and was seventh in conference play with 3.14 kills per game.
The Titans finished 22-15 overall and were 5-2 and finished third in the regular season phase of the CCIW this fall. IWU placed fourth in last weekend's conference tournament.
November 5-6
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team lost a pair of matches and finished fourth in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin championship tournament at Naperville, Ill. In the semifinal round on Sat., Nov. 6, the No. 3-seeded Titans rallied after losing the first two games but lost in five games to Millikin, 30-20, 30-22, 24-30, 26-30, 15-6. Then, in the third place match, IWU lost to Carthage in three games, 30-26, 30-22, 30-27. The Titans’ season ends with a 22-15 overall record and a third place overall finish in the league. IWU split a pair of matches on Fri., Nov. 5 in the pool-play round of the CCIW championship tournament pool-play round. The Titans defeated Augustana, 3-1 (30-27, 30-22, 22-30, 30-28) in the afternoon session before losing to eventual tournament champion Elmhurst, 3-2 (30-32, 31-33, 30-26, 31-29, 15-9) at night. Elmhurst will be the conference’s NCAA tournament representative.
November 2
The No. 3-seed Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team cruised to a 30-24, 30-20, 30-19 win over North Park in the first round of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin volleyball tournament Tues., Nov. 2, at Shirk Center. Natalie Quinton had a team-high 13 kills and Lindsay Clements added 12, while Molly May and Christine Konopasek had 10 kills apiece. Freshman Jenna Passananti had 12 digs and 47 assists. May led IWU in blocks with six and Nicole Walsh had four. In Naperville Fri., Nov. 5, IWU (21-12) will play Augustana at 2:30 p.m. and Elmhurst at 7:30 p.m. The tournament concludes Saturday.
October 22-23
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team, now 20-12, finished with a 3-1 record on their West Coast trip to play in the LaVerne (Calif.) Leopard Invitational Oct. 22-23. Illinois Wesleyan won twice on Oct. 22, downing Vassar (30-17, 30-23, 26-30, 30-28) and Cal.-Santa Cruz (24-30, 30-27, 26-30, 30-23, 15-5). IWU had a balanced attack vs. Vassar with five players having 10 or more kills. Molly May and Natalie Quinton had 17 kills each, Christine Konopasek had 12, Lindsay Clements 11 and Melissa Serritella 10. May also had eight blocks and Jenna Passananti finished with 57 assists and 23 digs. Against Santa Cruz, May had 17 kills and 16 blocks and Nicole Walsh had 13 kills. Quinton made 25 digs with six blocks. On Oct. 23, the Titans downed Occidental in three games (30-19, 30-15, 30-19) before losing in three to the No. 5-nationally ranked host team LaVerne (30-26, 30-17, 30-24). Against Occidental, May had nine kills and Walsh had seven to lead the Titans. Konopasek led IWU vs. LaVerne with 15 kills, while Walsh added nine. Serritella had four blocks and Colleen Ernst made 12 digs. Passananti had 72 assists in the two matches.
October 19
Illinois Wesleyan collected a College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin victory over Augustana by scores of 30-24, 30-15, 30-26 in Rock Island on Tues., Oct. 19. The Titans (17-11 overall, 5-2 CCIW) were led by junior Molly May with 14 kills, while Natalie Quinton added nine kills, Christine Konopasek had eight, and Lindsay Clements and Melissa Serritella contributed seven each. Quinton also had 24 digs and Konopasek 17, while current CCIW “Player of the Week” Jenna Passananti handed out 40 assists with 13 digs.
October 19
Illinois Wesleyan freshman Jenna Passananti has been selected as the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin "Setter/Defensive Player of the Week" for the week ending Oct. 16. For the week, Passananti averaged 10.83 assists and 2.89 digs in 18 games as the Titans went 3-1 in their own tournament and won a CCIW match against North Central on Oct. 12. She had 34 assists and 12 digs against North Central and had 42 assists and 14 digs in a tournament win over Coe.
October 15-16
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team went 3-1 in their own Titan Tournament, held Oct. 15-16 at the Shirk Center. The Titans improved to 16-11 overall by winning two matches on Sat., Oct. 16. IWU earned a three-game win over Clarke (30-20, 30-21, 30-18) before going five games to topple Coe (30-23, 16-30, 20-30, 30-26, 15-9). Christine Konopasek had team highs of 17 kills and 11 digs in the win over Clarke while Nicole Walsh had 11 kills and Molly May had 10. May had 18 kills and eight blocks in the win over Coe. Jaclyn Verticchio had 22 digs, Konopasek 16 digs and eight kills and Natalie Quinton had 15 digs and nine kills vs. Coe. On Fri., Oct. 15, IWU used a balanced attack to earn a 30-21, 30-23, 30-16 win over Dominican, then lost to Dubuque, 30-27, 19-30, 30-26, 30-25. Against Dominican, May led the Titans with 11 kills and nine blocks. Lindsay Clements had 10 kills, Konopasek had eight kills, four blocks and three service aces, and Walsh added six kills. In the loss to Dubuque, Konopasek had 20 kills, five blocks, and five service aces. May had 11 kills and nine blocks, and Clements and Walsh each had eight kills. Freshman setter Jenna Passananti had 77 assists and four aces in the two matches.
October 12
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team breezed through a three-game win over North Central, 30-23, 30-28, 30-20, at IWU’s Shirk Center on Tues., Oct. 12. The victory improved the Titans to 13-10 overall and 4-2 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. On “Senior Night”, Christine Konopasek and Kristy White stood out. Konopasek had eight kills, four blocks and eight digs and White had five digs. Molly May had 12 kills and seven blocks and Nicole Walsh added eight kills and four blocks. Jenna Passananti also chipped in four blocks.
October 8-9
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team won one of four matches over the weekend of Oct. 8-9 at the Wisconsin-Platteville tournament. On Oct. 8, the Titans took three games from Coe (30-20, 30-28, 31-29) and lost in three to nationally-ranked Wisconsin-Stout (30-13, 30-22, 30-18). Senior Christine Konopasek led the offense vs. Coe with 12 kills. The Titans had 18 block assists, 57 digs, and seven service aces, including two from Jaclyn Verticchio. Against Stout, Molly May led the IWU with seven kills. The Titans had 47 digs but only five blocks. On Oct. 9, IWU lost to No. 16 UW-River Falls (23-30, 22-30, 30-28, 23-30) and to No. 12-ranked UW-Platteville (16-30, 16-30, 25-30), managing only 19 kills against UW-P. Natalie Quinton had 14 kills and May had 11 in the UW-RF match. The Titans, who were 1-3 in the weekend tourney, are 12-10 overall and will have “Senior Night” for Kristy White and Konopasek on Tues., Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. against North Central.
October 2
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team managed only 11 blocks in four games and lost to Carthage, 23-30, 30-26, 30-28, 30-22 on Sat., Oct. 2 at IWU’s Shirk Center. The Titans fell to 11-7 overall and 3-2 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. Molly May led IWU with nine kills, five block assists and one solo block, while Melissa Serritella and Christine Konopasek each had eight kills. Jenna Passananti had 36 assists while Colleen Ernst had a team-high 15 digs and two service aces. The Titans were hurt by a negative hitting percentage in game four.
September 30
Junior Molly May and senior Christine Konopasek had 18 kills each as the Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team defeated Wheaton, 30-21, 20-30, 30-17, 30-32, 15-11, in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play on Thurs., Sept. 30. The Titans improved to 11-6 overall and 3-1 in the CCIW as they made 109 digs in the match. Natalie Quinton and Melissa Serritella each had 12 kills and Quinton led the way with 29 digs. Freshman Jenna Passananti, who had a team-high 56 assists, and Colleen Ernst added 16 digs each.
September 24-25
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team split its four games on Fri.-Sat., Sept. 24-25, to finish with a 2-2 record at the weekend Wisconsin-Whitewater Tournament. The Titans are 10-6 after a win over Simpson, 31-29, 30-20, 30-19, and a loss to nationally-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 15-30, 30-32, 12-30. Molly May had 11 kills, Nicole Walsh had 10 and Natalie Quinton had eight against Simpson while Jenna Passananti contributed 38 assists and nine digs. Walsh and Christine Konopasek were the kill leaders against UW-Oshkosh with nine while Quinton and Jaclyn Verticchio had 13 digs each. May and Walsh each had 13 kills and Konopasek added 10 to send the Titans to a victory over Loras College (26-30, 30-22, 30-23, 30-19) on Friday. The Titans lost to UW-Whitewater (30-15, 30-18, 30-28) as Lindsey Clements added seven blocks, Walsh had six blocks, Passananti made 39 assists and Konopasek finished with 16 digs. Against Whitewater, Walsh had 10 kills, May had three blocks, Passananti made 28 assists and 13 digs, and Kristy White also made 13 digs.
September 18
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team improved to 7-4 overall and 1-1 in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin with a 30-26, 30-23, 30-9 win at North Park on Sat., Sept. 18. IWU had 43 kills in the match and just 16 hitting errors. Junior Molly May and sophomore Nicole Walsh each had 10 kills while senior co-captain Christine Konopasek added nine. Freshman setter Jenna Passananti handed out 30 assists and junior Lindsay Clements had seven kills in 13 attempts with no hitting errors against the Vikings.
September 17
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team lost its College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin opener at Elmhurst, 30-28, 30-27, 30-27, on Fri., Sept. 17. Sophomore Nicole Walsh led IWU (6-4 overall, 0-1 CCIW) with 11 kills and Melissa Serritella added seven. Walsh also led the team with five blocks. Freshman Jenna Passananti had 30 assists, Christine Konopasek served two aces and sophomore libero Jaclyn Verticchio made 24 digs for the Titans.
September 14
For leading the Titans to five straight wins, junior outside hitter Molly May has been named “Offensive Player of the Week” in the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin for the week ending Sept. 11. In 17 total games she had 62 kills (3.65 per game) and a hitting percentage of .344. She had 16 kills against both Lakeland and Chicago. Also, for the week she had seven solo blocks and 24 assists for an average of 1.82. For her play she was selected to the all-tourney team of the IWU Fall Classic.
September 11
Led by all-tournament selection Molly May, the Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team won its own Titan Fall Classic, taking wins from the University of Chicago and Carthage on Sat., Sept. 11, at the Shirk Center. The Titans, winners of five straight, improved to 6-3 this season. The Titans downed Chicago, 30-21, 27-30, 30-22, 30-24, and defeated conference foe Carthage, 30-22, 30-28, 30-27. May had 16 kills, six block assists and five digs against Chicago and had 11 kills and five block assists vs. Carthage. Nicole Walsh had 15 kills and Christine Konopasek had 14 vs. Chicago. Melissa Serritella had 10 kills and Konopasek had 11 vs. Carthage. Freshman Jenna Passananti had 95 assists and Colleen Ernst had 44 digs in the two games.
September 10
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team improved to 4-3 this season as it won two matches in the IWU Fall Classic on Fri., Sept. 10, at the Shirk Center. The Titans downed Illinois College, 30-20, 31-29, 30-21, and beat Lakeland, 30-27, 23-30, 30-15, 30-23. Molly May had 11 kills and Nicole Walsh had 13 to lead the way against Illinois College, while May had 16 kills, Walsh had 12, and Christine Konopasek and Melissa Serritella each had 10 vs. Lakeland. Jenna Passananti had 74 assists in the two games and Colleen Ernst had 22 digs against Lakeland.
September 7
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team improved to 2-3 this season with a 30-15, 30-20, 30-20 nonconference victory at Eureka College on Tues, Sept. 7. Senior co-captain Christine Konopasek had 17 kills and sophomore Nicole Walsh added 11 kills for the Titans. Freshman setter Jenna Passananti led IWU with 38 assists and five aces, while junior Natalie Quinton had 14 digs.
September 4
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team lost both of its matches to preseason nationally-ranked teams at the Elmhurst Invitational on Sat., Sept. 4. The Titans (0-3) lost 30-25, 30-26, 30-19 to Elmhurst, then fell to Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 30-27, 30-26, 30-20. Sophomore Nicole Walsh slammed 10 kills and had four blocks against Elmhurst, and junior Molly May and senior Christine Konopasek each had eight kills. Freshman Jenna Passananti made 29 assists for the Titans. Against Oshkosh, May had nine kills and Natalie Quinton had eight. Passananti had 26 assists and Ashley Reed finished with 19 digs and three aces.
September 3
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team lost its season opener to St. Scholastica in the first round of the Elmhurst Tournament on Fri., Sept. 3. The Titans fell, 32-30, 30-27, 27-30, 29-31, 15-11. Senior Christine Konopasek led IWU with 18 kills. Nicole Walsh had 15 kills and seven blocks, Molly May had 11 kills and seven blocks, Natalie Quinton had 10 kills and three aces and Jaclyn Verticchio made 25 digs. In an exhibition match with NAIA school Trinity Christian, which was filling in for a team that had dropped out of the tourney, the Titans earned a 27-30, 30-20, 31-29, 30-22 win.
August 25
The Illinois Wesleyan volleyball team is among those receiving votes in the preseason American Volleyball Coaches Association Division III poll. Six of their regular season opponents are ranked, including LaVerne (4th), UW-Whitewater (11), UW-River Falls (14), Simpson (19), Elmhurst (21), and UW-Oshkosh (23). The Titans, 26-11 overall and 6-1 in winning the regular season phase of the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin in 2003, open their regular season Sept. 3-4 at the Elmhurst Tournament. IWU has exhibition matches prior to that against an alumni team (Sat., Aug. 28, 4 p.m.) and vs. junior college power Illinois Central College (Wed., Sept. 1, 7 p.m.) at the Shirk Center.
September 2004
Illinois Wesleyan opens its regular season on Sept. 3-4 with play in the Elmhurst Tournament. The Titans have exhibition matches prior to that against an alumni team (Aug. 28, 4 p.m.) and against junior college Illinois Central College (Sept. 1, 7 p.m.) at the Shirk Center.
