BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - In a back-and-forth clash for the CCIW Tournament Championship, Elmhurst couldn't hold off a second-half push from top-seeded Illinois Wesleyan, falling 16-13 on Saturday afternoon at Tucci Stadium.
The Bluejays finish their impressive 2025 campaign at 13-3, while the Titans improve to 14-2 and clinch the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament. Elmhurst rallied from an early deficit and led 7-4 in the second quarter, but Illinois Wesleyan closed the half strong and surged in the third and fourth to secure the crown.
Despite outshooting the Titans 52-36 and controlling the faceoff battle, the Bluejays were undone by 25 saves from IWU's Colin Tervo and timely offensive execution from the hosts.
Eli Spence led all scorers with a dominant eight-point performance, tallying four goals and four assists while firing 13 shots and collecting nine shots on goal. Pete Grebe added a hat trick, including a pair of man-up strikes in the second half. Hunter Hernandez contributed two goals, including a late tally to pull Elmhurst within three. Kaden Ames and Fischer Son each had a goal and an assist, while Sam Hoff and Charlie Ferree each scored once. Faceoff specialist Tony Vazquez had a strong showing at the X, winning 18-of-30 draws and scooping up nine ground balls. Goalie Noah Mickelson made 10 saves in the cage.
The Titans came out firing with four unanswered goals in the opening five minutes, ignited by Sam Skelton and Carlo Adams just 11 seconds apart. Bob Boone and Gage Black added unassisted tallies to push the lead to 4-0. Elmhurst responded with resilience, sparked by Fischer Son's finish off a feed from Sam Hoff. That goal launched a four-goal run of their own, with Spence scoring twice and assisting Ferree to tie the game at 4-4 by the end of the first. Elmhurst held a 15-8 shot advantage in the frame.
Momentum carried into the second for the Bluejays, who grabbed their first lead of the afternoon when Spence struck again just over a minute in. Ames and Grebe followed with unassisted goals to extend the lead to 7-4. However, the Titans stormed back with three straight goals in the final 6:24 of the half—Jake Kahoun's man-up score, followed by goals from Noah Dretzka and Billy McHugh in the final minute—sending the teams into the break deadlocked at 7-7.
Illinois Wesleyan seized control out of halftime, rattling off four straight goals to open the third and build an 11-7 lead. McHugh, Weinberg, Eastburn, and Weinberg again capitalized on crisp ball movement and unrelenting pressure. Elmhurst briefly answered with man-up goals from Grebe and Spence to cut the deficit to two, but couldn't draw closer before the quarter ended. The Bluejays were limited to just two goals on 10 shots in the frame.
In the decisive fourth, IWU once again struck early and often, with Kahoun leading the charge. He netted two more goals in the quarter—his third and fourth of the game—including a man-down goal that gave the Titans a 14-9 edge. Elmhurst attempted one last rally with goals from Hoff, Grebe (man-up), and Hernandez (man-up) to pull within 14-12 with under four minutes remaining. But Dretzka and Nick Horrocks responded quickly for the Titans, and despite a final goal from Hernandez in the closing two minutes, Elmhurst ran out of time to complete the comeback.
