Oct. 20, 2006

Final Stats

West Lafayette, Ind. - After missing Sunday's match with Penn State with severe pain in her left leg, Kayani Turner returned Friday night to post 18 kills and hit .343, but it was not enough to outlast a hot-hitting Purdue squad, who posted a 30-16, 30-28, 30-26 victory over Illinois in West Lafayette. The 14th ranked Boilermakers improve to 6-3 in the Big Ten and 16-4 overall, while Illinois falls to 12-7 overall, 3-6 in the league.

Illinois was slow out of the gates, falling behind 14-2 in game one, before responding to be competitive in games two and three. Turner, who entered the match 15th nationally in kills per game at 4.98, moved over the 5.0 kills mark with her performance Friday. The Illini hit .344 and .361 in games two and three, respectively, to finish at .267

"What was amazing about Kayani's performance was that she did so without any practice this week," said Illinois head coach Don Hardin.

The Illini couldn't slow down the Purdue duo of Samantha Mader and Stephanie Lynch. Mader was especially potent with 18 kills in 22 attacks for a .733 percentage. Lynch used a big third game to finish with nine kills and a .667 percentage. Purdue hit .541 in game three and .415 for the match.

Game one belonged to Purdue from the open. The Boilermakers sprung to early leads of 4-0, 10-1 and 14-2 before Illinois could settle in to any kind of rhythm. Purdue won the serve pass game with five aces in the first 14 points and six for the first game. The Boilers hit .857 in exploding to a 20-7 lead and hit .318 for the entire game. The Illini hit negative most of the first game, but ended at .091. Turner was a large part of the Illini's turnaround late in game one with four kills of the Illini's final six points in the opening game, finishing with five kills for the game.

"Early on it was a case of not being mentally and emotionally prepared," Hardin said.

Illinois recovered in the game two, hitting .344 compared to Purdue's .343. Vicki Brown (11 kills), who hit -.444 in the first game, emerged as a force early in game two with three kills in the first third of the game as the Illini stayed within 8-7. The Illini never led in the game, but kept it close throughout. The Boilers sprung to a 17-12 lead, but Illinois closed to within 21-20 thanks to kills from Kylie McCulley and Amy Palash, and a block from Turner and Brown. Turner added six kills in the second game while hitting .273. Illinois fought off two game points at 29-26 as Turner sliced one between the block and freshman libero Ashley Edinger served up an ace, but Purdue closed out the game at 30-28. Mader had six kills while hitting .625 for the Boilers.

Illinois jumped to an early 5-2 advantage in game three. Although Purdue bounced back, the Illini pushed in front 16-12 on a kill by Amy Palash (9 kills). Purdue took its first lead of the game at 23-22, but back-to-back kills from Palash and Brown gave Illinois a 24-23 advantage. Mader put the match away almost single handedly with four kills down the stretch as Purdue out-scored Illinois 7-2 to end the match. Turner and Palash had seven and five kills, respectively, for Illinois in game three. Mader had 10 kills and hit .909 in the third game.

Lizzie Bazzetta had 44 assists, and Ashley Edinger had 10 digs to pace the Illini in those departments for the night. Illinois meets Indiana (10-11, 1-8) Saturday night in Bloomington.