Sept. 16, 2005
Final Stats
Champaign, Ill. -
Visiting Eastern Illinois gave Illinois everything it could ask for in a five-game dual at Huff Hall, but in the end the Illini gutted out a 27-30, 30-19, 30-27, 27-30, 15-8 victory over the visiting Panthers Friday night at Huff Hall. The match in front of a crowd of 1809 was the second semifinal of the 22nd Annual State Farm Illini Classic and propelled the Illini to the championship Saturday night against Rice at 7 p.m.. The Owls defeated Illinois-Chicago, 30-26, 23-30, 31-29, 30-22 in the first semifinal. UIC and EIU meet in the consolation match Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
"We've been pretty good in five matches," noted Illinois Head Coach Don Hardin, who team is now 3-0 in five games. "I'd just prefer not have to get there, but we showed a lot of fortitude tonight in pushing to the end."
Junior middle blocker Meghan Macdonald was huge, exploding for a career-high 20 kills, six more than her previous best of 14 last September against Purdue. Macdonald hit .390 on the night. Macdonald had seven kills in game three, perhaps the key game of the match as the Illini came back to win 30-27. Macdonald hit .390 for the night and the Illini hit .297 in the game.
Sophomore Vicki Brown also had a solid night with 12 kills and a .364 hitting percentage.
"We've been riding our left side most of the season and tonight it was the middles who carried us," Hardin said. "Steph (Obermeier) felt comfortable in going middle."
EIU stunned the partisan crowd by taking the opening game. The Panthers jumped to a 6-2 advantage and held the lead until the Illini regained the advantage at 15-14. Macdonald had back-to-back kills to make it 18-14. Illinois led by as many as five at 20-15 before EIU battled back. The Panthers scored the final four points of the game to win 30-27.
The Illini took advantage of some EIU hitting errors to cruise to a 30-19 victory in game two. The Panthers hit just .031 and committed four service errors. Offensively, the Illini took advantage of the block with three of their eight team blocks on the night.
Eastern jumped to an 11-8 lead in game three, but Illinois rebounded to go in front 18-15. Senior Rasa Virsilaite had two of her seven kills in that stretch. Kayani Turner showed her leaping ability with some highlight reel putaways to help close out the game.
Although the Panthers won game four, the Illini gained momentum toward the end of the game and almost completed a thrilling comeback. With EIU in front, 26-19, Macdonald and Rachel VanMeter (19 kills) were crucial in getting the Illini back to within 28-27 before Eastern finally closed out the game, setting up a fifth and deciding frame.
With the game tied at 4-4, the Illini took control. Turner (12 kills) and sidekick Brown (12 kills) were instrumental in helping the Illini pull away. Brown put the exclamation point on the victory with a smash between the EIU defense.
"Rachel showed great leadership in fighting through to the end," Macdonald said. "We remained positive throughout and fed off each other's energy in game five."
Obermeier was two off her season-high with 60 assists. Beth Vrdsky, who had the Big Ten best 29 digs in a match coming in, topped that with 36 digs on Friday night.
