Oct. 27, 2006
Box Score
Vicki Brown had 18 kills and hit .387 for Illinois, but it was not enough as Michigan pulled out a 34-32, 32-30, 30-26 victory over the Illini at Huff Hall Friday night.
The match is the first in a critical stretch of showdowns for Illinois against teams jockeying for NCAA position. Michigan improves to 17-7 overall, 4-7 in the Big Ten tied with Illinois (13-8, 4-7) and Northwestern (10-10, 4-7) for seventh in the league. The Illini host Michigan State (14-6, 5-6) on Saturday and Northwestern Wednesday.
The Illini had five-point leads in both games one and three, but were unable to hold on. In game two, they rallied from down eight points to tie, forcing the Wolverines to play extra points to get the win.
"We played good volleyball at some stints tonight, but had some breakdowns at critical junctures," said Illinois head coach Don Hardin. "We had the lead with some chances to close it out, but couldn't quite finish it."
Illinois broke open a tight game one with a 10-6 run that put the Illini on top 20-16, taking full advantage of the backslide to Brown, who had seven kills and hit .455 in the first game. Michigan got the arm of outside hitter Katie Bruzdzinski going after that to push ahead 24-22. Bruzdzinski had eight kills and hit .350 in the first game and finished with a team-high 17 kills.
The Wolverines pushed back in front 28-26, but the Illini came back to tie at 28-28 and fended off four game points, the final two on a pair of kills from Kylie McCulley. However, the Wolverines fed the middle to Lyndsay Miller (10 kills) for the final two points of the game.
Illinois used the block to rally from a 16-9 deficit to nearly pull out game two. The Illini had six blocks in the game and 12 for the match. Meghan Macdonald was in on many of those blocks with three solo and five block assists in the game, finishing with four solos and six assists for the match.
The Illini got blocks on three straight points to make it 24-22 and force a Wolverine timeout, then used back-to-back blocks from Macdonald to make it 26-25. The Illini pulled even at 29 and 30 before Michigan closed out the game.
Illinois played its best volleyball of the night early in game three, using some inspired play from Kayani Turner to turn an 8-8 game into a 15-10 advantage. Turner, still nursing a leg injury, had six of her eight kills in game three.
Michigan, though, came roaring back to take the lead for good at 19-18. The Illini stayed within a point or two, but a flurry at the end gave the game and the match to the Wolverines.
Kylie McCulley played well at times, finishing with eight kills, while Lizzie Bazzetta finished with 43 assists and Ashley Edinger paced the team with 13 digs. Michigan, meanwhile, used the arms of Bruzdzinski and Miller to out-hit the Illini .194-.131.
"We got in some hitting grooves; they got in some hitting grooves; we got our block going as they did at times. That's why the games were so tight. We just made some errors in key points. That was the difference tonight."
