St. Louis, Mo., September 4, 2019 – The No. 25-ranked Washington University in St. Louis volleyball team picked up a 3-1 win in its first Top-25 showdown of the season, defeating No. 24 Illinois Wesleyan while four Bears reached double figure kill totals Wednesday evening in the WU Field House.

WashU improved to 3-2 on the year while dropping IWU to 0-4 on the year. The Bears improved to 24-7 all-time against the Titans and outhit their opponent .296-to-.153 on the match.

Senior Leila King and junior Tricia Brown led the team with 12 kills apiece as sophomores Michaela Bach and Caitlin Lorenz each contributed 10 as well. The quartet combined to supply 44 of the Bears 52 kills. Freshman Alaina Bohrer added five kills in six attempts seeing action in the final two sets of the match.

Junior Kirby Knapp paced the attack to 25-21, 25-19, 23-25 and 25-18 sets with 41 total assists. Senior Zoe Baxter totaled a match-high 15 digs.

The first set was neck-and-neck and tied 19-all but a pair of Titan errors and solo block by King put WashU ahead by three points. Senior Hannah Turner and Lorenz scored the Bears final two points on assists by Knapp to end the set 25-21.

The second set was similarly close as IWU caught up to within one point at 19-18 but a string of five straight WashU points put the Bears on the brink of a two set lead. The Red & Green waited an additional point before clinching the second frame on a spike by Bach.

After posting a match-high .407 hitting percentage in the second set, WashU stumbled to a .229 mark in the third. The Bears did lead the set 19-17 but IWU rallied to capture the lead on a 7-2 run. WashU scored the next two points to nearly pull even on kills by King and Brown but the Titans claimed their first set of the season, 25-23.

Lorenz dominated the early portion of the fourth set with four of WashU's initial nine points for a 9-4 lead. The Bears combined for three blocks in the final frame with King leading the charge with a solo and two block assists. The Titans rallied to within 20-16 before the Bears closed out the match with two kills by Brown, an ace by Knapp, a block by King and the clinching kill by Bach.

WashU travels to Dubuque, Iowa this weekend for its first road trip of the year and open the four-match weekend against Dominican (Ill.) at the Loras Invite at 3 p.m. on Friday, August 6. Be sure to stay up to date on all your Bears scores and awards by following @WashUBears on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.