PICTURED ABOVE: Junior Kelly Thornton was named to the All-Tournament Team at the DePauw Tigers Invitational.

Greencastle, Ind. – The Thunder volleyball team completed its participation in the DePauw Tigers Invitational on Saturday with a pair of matches. The Thunder earned an impressive 3-2 (25-21, 26-28, 25-23, 14-25, 15-9) win against Mount Union to open the day. Wheaton handed the Purple Raiders their first loss of the season. Wheaton closed out the tournament with Hanover handing Wheaton a 3-0 defeat (25-18, 25-19, 25-18). Thunder setter Kelly Thornton earned an All-Tournament selection with her performance at the tournament.

Wheaton defeated a Mount Union team that received votes in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Top-25 Poll in the morning session. Senior Emily Potts registered a team-high 18 kills in the win over the Purple Raiders with a .357 attack percentage. Potts also tallied five assisted blocks and an solo block. Ellie Brown added 12 kills, Madeline Moore (PICTURED LEFT) made 11 kills, Audrey Irwin had nine kills and Katie Rohrer registered seven. Jessica Bosse tallied 30 digs, Moore added 19 and Jackie Boulris added 15 kills. Thornton led the squad with 28 assists in the match and Alecia Funk had 22. Katie Ragland tallied three service aces in the match.

Wheaton secured the win with a 15-9 victory in the decisive fifth set. The set was tied at 7-7 when the Thunder scored the next six points to take a 13-7 lead. The impressive 6-0 surge secured the key win for the Thunder.

Head coach Stephanie Schmidt noted after the match, "I was very proud of how we played against Mount Union. They're a great team and we managed to keep them out of system and block well, and all of our hitters really stepped up so we could mix up our offense. We also had some of our best serve receive numbers of the season, which was a huge part of our success."

Irwin had a team-high eight kills in the match against Hanover. Moore registered seven kills and Potts added five kills. Funk had a team-high 10 assists in the match as Bosse registered 18 digs. Thornton had 10 digs and nine assists. Potts was a part of four blocks in the match.

"In our second match, we just lacked the necessary discipline and intensity to beat Hanover. Our offensive numbers were okay, but our passing and defense--usual strengths of ours--struggled against a few of Hanover's big hitters. We just couldn't stop their attack," stated Schmidt. She concluded, "Overall, we feel really good coming home with a big win over an unbeaten team, and we're showing that we can be very good when we're focused and disciplined."
 
The Thunder travel to Lake Forest on September 19 for a 7:00 p.m. matchup with the Foresters.