Illinois-Indiana Box Score in PDF Format
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Nov. 21, 2003
Bloomington, Ind. -
The Illini volleyball team continued to hold their position in the Big Ten race after defeating Indiana tonight in four games by the score of 30-20, 28-30, 30-23, 30-27. With the victory, Illinois extends its winning streak to five straight matches and improves to 22-5 on the season and 13-4 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers, meanwhile, fall to 11-17 overall and 4-13 in the conference.
Illinois hit .248 as a team, led by sophomore Rachel VanMeter 19 kills on an attack percentage of .263. The Illini found themselves going back and fourth with the Hoosiers through three games as the teams traded victories. In the fourth game, furious hitting was the theme as both teams hit over .200 and traded leads until Illinois took over late grabbing a lead at 27-26 to finish the Hoosiers once and for all 30-27.
The Illinois front line tallied 12 team blocks and the UI's defense held Indiana to a .151 hitting percentage on the night. Indiana had trouble getting the passing game going due to the Illini's 11 service aces.
"Tonight we had some players come up with the big play at the crucial moment, none of them bigger than Vandrey's two blocks down the stretch in game four," Head Coach Don Hardin said. "Anything can happen on these road trips, but we really fought and showed a tremendous amount of determination throughout to get this win on the road."
Junior Jessica Belter turned in a great performance for the Illini as the right side hitter registered 13 kills on a hitting percentage of .385. Seniors Lisa Argabright and Melissa Vandrey produced 13 and 12 kills, respectively, to become part of four Illini to reach double figures in the kills column, Shelly O'Bryan added seven kills.
Setter Erin Virtue did a little bit of everything during the course of the match. The junior tallied 48 assists and finished in double figures in digs with 12. Kathleen Bazzetta and Beth Vrdsky added double-figure digs with 15 and 11, respectively.
Illinois travels to Purdue on Saturday, Nov. 22, the match will begin 6 p.m. Central Time.
