EAU CLAIRE, WIS.—Illinois Wesleyan and Wartburg awaited the Hamline University women's volleyball team for a pair of Saturday-afternoon games at the UW-Eau Claire Tournament.

The Pipers dropped their first match to Illinois Wesleyan by a score of 3-1 (25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-11), before they prevailed in five sets over Wartburg 3-2 (25-19, 27-25, 21-25, 10-25, 15-10).

Saturday's split sent Hamline's record to 3-5 on the season. Illinois Wesleyan improved to 4-6, while Wartburg fell to 4-8 following their games against Hamline.

Illinois Wesleyan 3, Hamline 1  (25-19, 25-19, 23-25, 25-11)

Set one saw five lead changes and 10 ties until the score was 15-15, where Illinois Wesleyan went on a 4-0 run behind a pair of kills and a service ace that gave them the driver's seat for good in a 25-19 win.

The Pipers dominated the beginning of set two, as three kills from Elizabeth Lopata along with two from Faith Johnson helped give their team a 10-6 advantage. This ignited a Titans squad that responded with an 15-3 run that was engineered by three kills apiece from Taylor French and Taylor Babec, which gave the Titans a 21-13 cushion they wouldn't surrender in a 25-19 win.

Hamline led for a majority of the third frame, and didn't look back when Elizabeth Lopata's kill kicked off a 5-1 run that put them in front 7-4. The Titans made things tight down the stretch when three Carly Kuehl kills highlighted their 6-1 run that got them within the Pipers at 24-23, before Faith Johnson's kill secured the 25-23 win.

The TItans' .516 hitting percentage that included 17 kills, and only a combined four errors was too much to overcome in a 25-11 loss in set four, where they sealed the 3-1 match win.

Faith Johnson and Elizabeth Lopata each had a team-leading 12 kills for a Hamline team that matched Illinois Wesleyan in aces (8-8) and blocks (5-5) in the game. Kaitlyn Kotek and Lauren Wilborn each had three aces. Kotek added 35 assists to her stat line, while Jenna Rubbelke led the defense with 24 digs, followed by 14 from Wilborn.

Taylor French had a game-high 20 kills for Illinois Wesleyan.

Hamline 3, Wartburg 2 (25-19, 27-25, 21-25, 10-25, 15-10)

Hamline finished the match with a season-high 78 digs, 10 service aces, and 168 total attacks.

The Pipers took a 2-0 match lead after they accumulated a .270 hitting percentage, 27 kills, and just 13 total errors throughout the opening frames that resulted in 25-19 and 27-25 scores.

The third set was even statistically, but three Wartburg service aces along with six kills from Allison Feigenbaum seemed to be the difference maker in a 25-21 win to narrow the match to 2-1.

The Knights inched closer to the potential reverse sweep as they led from start-to-finish in a 25-10 set-four win to tie the match 2-2. The fifth set came down to discipline, and it was the Pipers who prevailed in that category as they committed just two errors while Wartburg were victim of seven. Two of those errors kicked off Hamline's 3-0 run at the tail end, which was capped by Johnson's kill that secured Hamline the 15-10 win and 3-2 match victory.

Johnson paced Hamline with 13 kills, while Kotek had 38 assists. Jenna Rubbelke led the way with 35 digs and four service aces. Julianna Boyum set the tone at the net with three blocks for the Pipers.

Hamline will open MIAC play at Hutton Arena against St. Catherine on Friday, September 22 at 7 p.m.