Naperville, Ill. - The Thunder volleyball team earned its first CCIW victory on Friday evening with a three-set victory over North Central. Wheaton won a hotly contested first set 30-28 before cruising to victories of 25-16 and 25-18 in the final two sets. Wheaton is now 12-16 and 1-6 in the CCIW. North Central falls to 3-20 and 0-8 in conference play. Wheaton will play a pair of matches at Benedictine on Saturday beginning with a 10 am matchup against Concordia-Chicago, before facing the host Eagles at noon.

Colleen Smith led the Thunder attack with a game-high 10 kills and also added 12 digs. Madeline Moore and Deborah Smith each had eight kills with Smith hitting a game-best .571. Ellie Brown and Audrey Gerze each had six kills. Kelly Thornton led the Thunder with 18 assists and Marlee Anderson had 15 assists. Jess Bosse led the defense with 21 digs.

Wheaton raced out to an 9-3 lead in the opening set and continued to lead until the Cardinals battled back to the set at 18-18 setting off a wild finish. Trailing 21-19, North Central went on a quick 5-2 run to take a 24-22 lead. Wheaton fought off set point on a service error and the teams traded points until another North Central service error tied the set at 28-28. Consecutive kills from Colleen Smith finally brought the marathon set to 30-28 close following nine ties and five lead changes.

The second set carried none of the drama over from the first set with Wheaton scoring the first three points and stretching the lead to 11-4 on a service ace from Gerze and a kill by Deborah Smith. North Central would get as close as 13-9 following a four-point run but the Thunder held the Cardinals at bay, scoring the final three points for a 25-16 victory.

A 9-1 run early in the third set gave Wheaton a 9-2 lead, but as the did in the first set, the Cardinals came storming back, pulling to within two points at 17-15 and 18-16. Wheaton took advantage of some sloppy attack work from the Cardinals to score four straight points and clsoed out the match with a service ace from Kelly Thornton for the 25-18 victory.