Nov. 12, 2004
Final Stats
Bloomington, Ind. -
No. 25 Illinois won its fourth straight match on Friday night with a dominating 30-20, 30-18, 30-22 victory over Indiana. The Illini move to 10-5 in the Big Ten and 18-6 overall. Indiana falls to 8-19, 2-14 in the conference.
"We came out of the chute running and never gave them a chance to gain confidence," noted Illinois Head Coach Don Hardin. "The first part of our weekend had great intensity, attitude and execution. Tomorrow's match (at Purdue) will tell us a lot."
That Purdue match has moved to 8 p.m. EST Saturday (7 p.m. CST) because Purdue's late home football game.
"I thought (freshman setter) Stephanie Obermeier was phenomenal, especially her back row defense" Hardin said. "She did a nice job of setting the middle and mixing up our offense."
Indeed Obermeier's assists came to a lot of different targets as the Illini hit .402 on the night, including .469 in game three. Rasa Virsilaite led the way with 13 kills and a .478 attack percentage. Jen Hynds (10 kills, .529 percentage) and Jessica Belter (10 kills, .450) were also in double figures in kills. Obermeier meanwhile had her first career double-double with 11 digs to go along with 38 assists.
Sophomore middle blocker Meghan Macdonald got things started for the Illini with five kills in nine attacks (.529) in the first game. Macdonald finished the match with seven kills. "Mac really set the tone early," Hardin said. "I thought Mac and Jen Hynds made a big difference in the middle."
Indiana managed just two blocks to the Illini's six, marking the fourth straight match that Illinois has out-blocked its opponent - all four were Illini victories. Jen Hynds' three blocks paced that attack.
The Hoosiers grabbed the early 4-2 advantage in game one, but that's about all the trouble the Illini would have on the night. Thanks to four straight points off the serve of Virsilaite, the Illini went in front 7-5. The Illini had a several big runs in the first game, most notably three straight points off the Kathleen Bazzetta serve to make it 15-10 and five straight from Stephanie Obermeier to make it 27-15.
Illinois leads the Big Ten in service aces and Obermeier had one of the seven on the night for the Illini. That helped propel the visitors to a 10-6 advantage in game two. The redshirt freshman Obermeier also keyed a late game rally to make it 27-15. Macdonald and Bazzetta had three and two aces, respectively.
One of the keys of the night was the Illini playing relatively error free volleyball, making just one service error and 12 hitting errors. Indiana meanwhile had nine service errors and 19 attack errors.
The Illini hitting percentage improved each game from .333 in game one to .405 in game two to .469 in game three. Through just two servers, the best two on the team in Bazzetta and Macdonald, Illinois led 10-2 in game three. Virsilaite had three big kills in that rally.
Rachel VanMeter finished the night with eight kills, and her presence really opened it up for many of the other Illinois attackers. "I though Rachel VanMeter was really terrific on the block as well and in stopping Indiana's big slide hitter Katie Pollom."
Pollom had 14 kills and hit .500 as the lone bright spot for Indiana.
