Despite taking a two-set lead in their home opener, the Benedictine University women's volleyball team dropped a five-set match to Wheaton College on Thursday night in the Dan and Ada Rice Center.

Benedictine (2-9) took the first set easily, 25-16. The Eagles were on fire offensively, tallying 12 kills while the defense recorded 16 digs and forced Wheaton (3-6) to commit 11 attack errors.

The momentum continued the second game, as BenU defeated the Thunder 25-13 and tallied 10 kills with just two hitting errors.

In the third set, the Eagles and Thunder battled back and forth, trading points. With the game tied at 19-all it was BenU that took the lead with an ace from Beckie Whitmarsh. The Wheaton offense stepped up, tallying six straight points as they defeated the Eagles 25-21.

Benedictine took a 3-0 lead in the fourth set but the Thunder battled back to tie it at six. Again, Wheaton scored six straight points to take the lead. Both teams traded points through the match but it was Wheaton that took the 24-23 lead. A kill from Erin Wiegand tied it at 24. After a BenU service error and a Wheaton attack error, both teams were even at 25. Wheaton went on to score the final two points on a BenU service and hitting error to force a fifth set.

Andraia Leja and Wiegand put the Eagles ahead 3-0 in the fifth set but Wheaton's offense powered back to tie the game at ten. Wheaton scored five of the next seven points to take home the 15-12 win.

As a team, the Eagles out-hit Wheaton 52-47 and also recorded 95 digs compared to tWC's 91. Wheaton had nine team blocks and 10 service aces while the Eagles had seven team blocks and had 10 serve-receive errors.

Whitmarsh led BenU with 13 kills and just two errors while Wiegand had a season high 11 kills and 12 digs with three block assists. Keriann Groen recorded 10 kills, three block assists and three solo blocks while Abby Screnock had nine kills and 38 assists. The Eagle defense was impressive, tallying 95 total digs including 19 from Leja and 15 from Kelcey Adams. Vanessa Possidoni recorded 11 digs.

The women's volleyball team has an off-weekend ahead, but is back in action on Tuesday, September 16 when they travel to Concordia University-Chicago to open up Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play starting at 7:00 pm.