Oct. 13, 2000

Box Score

Bloomington, Ind. - Illinois' comeback rally fell short Friday night, as the Illini lost on the road to Indiana in four games by the score of 9-15, 11-15, 18-16, 7-15. With the loss, Illinois now stands at 10-8 overall, and 1-6 in the Big Ten Conference.

The hidden gem for the Illini despite the loss was the brilliant play of senior middle blocker Betsy Spicer. Spicer started off the match with an amazing streak of recording 12 kills in her first 12 attempts. She went 18 swings before making her first error, and finished the night with 18 kills and just three errors in 30 attempts, for a sizzling hitting percentage of .500.

However, no one else on the Orange and Blue could match Spicer's offensive production, as the team hit just .156 for the match, compared to Indiana's .263. Junior outside hitter Shadia Haddad had a team high 20 kills and made it a double-double with 12 digs. Spicer also tallied a double-double with a team high 13 digs.

Senior setter Heather Wilson was inserted into the lineup in the third game to replace sophomore Betsy Eiserman after the Illini went into the break down 0-2. Wilson lead the Illini to victory in game three 18-16, as the team held off five Indiana game points. But Indiana built an early lead in the fourth game from which the Illini were unable to recover.

"I thought Heather did a good job of coming in midway through the match and executing the game plan," Head Coach Don Hardin said. "We knew we had to get the middle involved in the offense and she was able to get Betsy some swings. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any of our outside hitters to match the production that Betsy gave us."

Next up for the Illini is a road match tomorrow night at Penn State, who is 15-4 on the year and 4-3 in the Big Ten. The match is slated to begin at 6:30 p.m. central time.