Naperville, Ill. - The Thunder volleyball team dropped a five-set match at North Central on Saturday against the University of Dubuque. The loss dropped the Thunder to 13-6 overall while boosting Dubuque to 12-8 overall. Wheaton will step back into conference action on Tuesday night with a 7 pm match at Millikin University.

Wheaton claimed the first set 25-20 before dropping the next two sets by a score of 25-14. Wheaton pushed the match to a fifth and final set with a 28-26 victory in the fourth set but fell 15-10 in the deciding set. Audrey Gerze led the Thunder attack with 13 kills and was joined in double figures by Colleen Smith's 11 kills. Alecia Funk dished out a team-high 25 assists and Allie High had a team-best 33 digs.

After Wheaton's 25-20 first set victory, Dubuque's attack hit at a rate of 73 and 78 percent in consecutive 25-14 set victories. Wheaton jumped to a quick 8-4 lead in the fourth set only to have the Spartans come roaring back to pull even at 15-15. Wheaton answered by scoring the next six points to lead 21-15. Trailing 23-19, Dubuque went on a five-point run to reach match-point.  Wheaton staved off match-point three times and scored the final three points of the set to win 28-26.

Dubuque rebounded to lead wire-to-wire in the fifth and final set, scoring the first four points and never looking back while closing out the victory.