Nov. 14, 2001
Final Stats
Bloomington, Ind. -
Coach Don Hardin earned the 100th victory of his Illini coaching career tonight as No. 21 Illinois defeated host Indiana in four games by the score of 30-21, 22-30, 30-27, 31-29. With the win, the Illini improve to 18-7 on the season and are in fourth place in the Big Ten with a league record of 11-7. Indiana meanwhile, falls to 7-18 overall and 4-13 in conference play.
"It's nice to get to 100 wins, but this season every win is a special one for our team," Hardin said following the match. "It's a celebration for our players that survived a challenging year last year and have fought hard to turn things around this season. It's a credit to the people we have in and around the program, from our players and the assistant coaches on our staff, to the administration and support staff."
The Illini were led to victory by a career night from sophomore middle blocker Lisa Argabright. Argabright was unstoppable throughout the match, recording a career-high 20 kills on .531 hitting (three errors in 32 swings). Argabright also registered another career high with 11 blocks in the match to record the first double-double of her career. The 20 kills breaks her previous high of 19 set against DePaul on Oct. 9, while her 11 blocks betters her former career high of eight blocks, set twice earlier in the season.
Juniors Sue Webber and Betsy Eiserman also had brilliant performances for the Illini. Webber hit .300 at the right-side, tallying a season-high 14 kills along with four blocks. Eiserman tied her season-high in two categories by finishing the match with 58 assists and 12 digs.
In all, four Illini players finished the match in double figures in kills as the Illini enjoyed a .265-.198 hitting advantage over the Hoosiers. In addition to Argabright and Webber, senior Shadia Haddad had 12 kills while fellow senior Lydia Gard chipped in with 11. Freshman defensive specialist Kathleen Bazzetta tied her season-high with 13 digs, while Haddad racked up her ninth double-double of the season with 10 digs in addition to her 12 kills.
Illinois out-blocked Indiana 17-11 highlighted by Argabright's 11 blocks. Freshman Lauren Harks and Gard each added five blocks, with the five from Harks tying her season high.
Illinois is next in action on Saturday, Nov. 17 hosting Purdue at 7 p.m. It will be Senior Night at Huff Hall on Saturday, with the program honoring seniors Lydia Gard, Shadia Haddad, and Amber Lindner in the final home match of the regular season.
