Sept. 25, 2005
Final Stats
Columbus, Ohio -
After kicking off the Big Ten season on a somber note Friday night with a three-game loss to No. 4 Penn State, the Fighting Illini managed to pull off a five-game win (27-30, 21-30, 32-30, 30-24, 20-18) over No. 16 Ohio State in comeback fashion Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio.
Power hitting was the story of the night for Illinois with senior Rachel VanMeter putting up 25 kills in 71 attempts and sophomore Vicki Brown recording a career-high 16 kills in 25 attempts. Junior Meghan Macdonald (14 kills) and sophomore Kayani Turner (18 kills) added to Illinois' offensive numbers.
Sophomore Stephanie Obermeier also racked up big numbers in the win with a season-high 65 setting assists.
Perfect passing, few errors and ferocious pressure up against the net were some of the other factor in winning games three, four, and five.
Freshmen Jana Wojcik and Lizzie Bazzetta and senior libero Beth Vrdsky each had 12 digs apiece.
The Illini put up a total of 11 team blocks against the Buckeyes with Macdonald leading the way with six. VanMeter and Brown both had four blocks each on the night.
In a hard-fought game one, the Illini earned every point they scored on Ohio State. VanMeter (seven kills) and Brown (three kills) led the team on the offensive side of the ball, while Obermeier and Macdonald played hard in front of the net to rack up a total of five team blocks.
The Orange and Blue trailed the entire game by a slim margin and were unable to find the points they needed to take the lead. The Illini eventually fell to the Buckeyes by a score of 30-27.
A heater from VanMeter began the second game of the night for the Illini, but they quickly found themselves trailing 10-4. Illinois finally found some offensive life once the score reached 20-10 in favor of the Buckeyes.
VanMeter, Macdonald, Turner and Brown all had kills to bring the score to 25-20, but Ohio State dominated the rest of the way to win 30-21. VanMeter and Macdonald each had four kills in the game.
Illinois was a little shaky coming out of the locker room for game three. Two back-to-back passing errors put them down 6-3, but the Illini crawled back to tie the game up at 9-9 with a fierce service ace from Macdonald.
Momentum switched sides midway through the game when three-straight kills from Macdonald, Turner and Bazzetta made the score 18-17 in favor of the Buckeyes.
Brown helped the Illini find their first lead of the game since 1-0 with four kills within a span of seven points, making the score 23-22. Ohio State rushed back to take the lead, but the Illini were not finished. VanMeter killed three balls and teamed up with Brown to take the lead at 31-30. Illinois finally ended the match at 32-30 with the help of an attack error by the Buckeyes.
VanMeter had seven kills while Brown and Turner each had five on the game.
The Illini charged into the fourth game with determination written all over their faces. Dominate kills from VanMeter, Brown and Macdonald helped the Orange and Blue pull out to a 20-12 lead. Turner showed some power as well with six kills in the game. Illinois went on to beat the Buckeyes by a score of 30-24.
Illinois trailed Ohio State in the early part of game five, but a service ace from Bazzetta tied the game up at 6-6. A little trickery from Obermeier made the game 11-9 in favor of the Illini when she faked a set and pushed the ball over the net and out of the reach of any Buckeye.
Ohio State battled back to tie the game up at 14-14 and continued to match every Illini point all the way to the score of 18-18. Illinois went up by a point after an Ohio State attacking error and managed to tool an attack out of bounds on the Buckeye's next block to take game point and win 20-18.
The Fighting Illini are now 10-3 on the season and 1-1 in Big Ten play. They return home next weekend to Huff Hall to play Northwestern on Friday, Sept. 23 and Wisconsin on Sunday, Oct.1. Both games are set to start at 7 p.m. C.T.
