Nov. 19, 2004

Final Stats

Columbus, Ohio - Illinois recorded a season-high 17 blocks, but it was not enough to withstand #7 Ohio State, who downed the Illini 30-24, 29-31, 30-28, 27-30, 15-8 in front of 1,672 fans in Columbus. The Big Ten's all-time kills leaders Stacey Gordon had 32 kills to pace the Buckeyes.

Rachel VanMeter had 22 kills and Jessica Belter 18 kills for Illinois, who falls to 18-8 overall and 10-7 in the Big Ten. Ohio State moves to 25-3 overall and 15-3 in the conference. It moves the Buckeyes to within ½ game of league-leading Penn State, whom the Illini play tomorrow.

"I'm disappointed with the loss," said Illinois Head Coach Don Hardin. "I thought early in the match we didn't push as hard has we should. We fought through that and made it a match, but I felt we should have won tonight. We are trying to teach our players to expect to win against Top Ten teams even on the road."

Illinois got one solo block and seven block assists from Jen Hynds and six block assists from Jessica Belter to pace the front row defense. Lauren Harks had a team-leading 16 digs. Illinois hit .126 to the Buckeyes' .192. Stephanie Obermeier led the Illini in assists with 53.

Illinois controlled the first part of game one, taking a 9-5 lead. Jessica Belter had four kills and Rachel VanMeter had a solo block in the Illinois rally. Ohio State rebounded to tie at 9-9, but Illinois maintained its lead until the Buckeyes went in front for the first time at 22-21. From there, OSU out-scored the Illini 8-3 to close out the game. At one point in the game, Ohio State was hitting .000, but rebounded to have 10 kills and just one error down the stretch. After Belter's .444 in game one, the rest of the team hit -0.40. Gordon got at the end of game one and finished with eight kills in the opening game.

The Illini rebounded to take game two 31-29 using the block to their benefit. The Illini had four team blocks in the game and three service aces while hitting .256. Belter hit .800 with four kills in game two. Rasa Virsilaite broke a 25-25 tie with a thunderous kill that ricocheted about eight rows into the stands. After OSU tied the score, Kathleen Bazzetta scored an ace and Hynds and Virsilaite combined on a kill to make it 28-26 Illinois. Ohio State tied the score at 29-29, but Vicki Brown, who is often put in in must score situations, came through with a kill that made it 30-29 and gave Illinois the serve back. The Illini finally put the game away on a right-side attack for a kill from VanMeter, who had six kills in game two.

Illinois dug itself a big hole in game three, only to dig out of it. Ohio State exploded to a 20-12 advantage. That's when the block again came into play. A pair of blocks and a host of Buckeye attack errors trying to hit around the block keyed a 12-4 Illinois run as the Illini tied the game at 24-24. Ohio State eventually pulled out the game 30-28. Illinois hit just .000 in game three, but had four key blocks to get back in the game.

The Illini built a 16-11 lead in game four only to see Ohio State claw back to a 23-22 lead. Illinois would not be denied, however, thanks to some great defense. The Illini had six blocks in game four and came up with some key digs. VanMeter had seven of her kills in the fourth game and Meghan Macdonald had a block to put Illinois up for good at 27-26.

Ohio State controlled game five, bolting to 6-1 and 10-3 leads before closing out the match.