Bloomington, Ill. – The breakout 2025 season came to an end for the Wheaton College volleyball team on Thursday in the semifinals of the CCIW Women's Volleyball Championships. The No. 3 ranked Illinois Wesleyan Titans defeated Wheaton 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-14).

Wheaton closes the year with a 22-10 overall record, with the 22 victories this season marking the most for the program since Wheaton recorded 24 wins in 2013. The team's 68.8% winning percentage this year is tied for the second-highest single-season win percentage in program history.

Senior Jordan Benford had a team-high 10 kills and added 10 digs for the Thunder. Katherine Adkison tallied nine kills, while Ashton Major added six kills. Setter Lacey Higgins had 24 assists for Wheaton, and libero Grace Autry recorded 12 digs.

The Titans won the first set 25-22. The opening set was tied 7-7 when the hosts gradually pulled away with a 5-2 run to take a 12-9 lead. The Titans maintained a lead for the rest of the set to take a 1-0 lead in the match score. Major, Benford and Adkison each had three kills in the first set for the Thunder. Higgins added eight assists, while Autry and Meghan Shah each had four digs.

IWU won the second set 25-21. The set was tied seven times with three lead changes. Wheaton's latest lead in the set was a 17-16 advantage late in the set, and the final tie score was at 21-21. Benford had six kills and six digs in the second set, with 10 assists for Higgins.

Illinois Wesleyan closed out the match with a 25-14 victory in the third set. The set was tied at 9-9 when the hosts broke things open with an 11-2 run to take a 20-11 lead. Adkison had five kills and Higgins had six assists.

Note Worthy: Higgins (PICTURED LEFT) concludes her Thunder career with 2, 643 assists, a mark that ranks ninth in program history and her 7.07 digs per set average is fifth…Autry closes out her four seasons at Wheaton with a career average of 4.22 digs per set, a mark that ranks ninth on Wheaton's all-time list.