Oct. 28, 2006
Box Score
Illinois came into the weekend in a jog jam for spots 5-9 in the Big Ten Conference, the higher end of which has traditionally received NCAA bids. Playing two of those of other teams, the Illini came up empty, falling Saturday night to Michigan State 30-26, 30-16, 30-22 at Huff Hall.
The Illini have been battling injuries with Kayani Turner and Amy Palash seeing little practice time. Saturday's performance, Illinois head coach Don Hardin said was the partially the result of not being able to play as a unit during practice.
"Our offense was definitely out of rhythm today, even on the good passes we had," said Hardin.
Saturday also continued a trend of the Illini playing competitive in individual games and not being able to get over the hump. Twice in Friday's loss to Michigan, Illinois took the Wolverines to extra points. Saturday Illinois played the Spartans tight in the opening game, then saw Michigan State score convincing victories in the final two.
"There were a lot of positives in terms of fight and effort in the backcourt." Hardin said. "We kept scrapping to get any ball possible. I think we were a little discouraged after coming close in so many games at home recently and not being able to get over the hump."
Michigan State, who completes the season sweep over the Illini, hit .425 as a team, including .520 in game two, paced by one of the league's top outside hitters in Katie Johnson, who hit .455 with 14 kills. The Illini also ran into a big block that also never allowed Illinois to get into any kind of rhythm offensively. Michigan State's 12 blocks led in part to the Illini's .082 hitting percentage.
Illinois (4-9 in the Big Ten, 13-9 overall) faces a short week in preparation for Northwestern, who comes to Huff Hall Wednesday. Michigan State (6-6, 15-8) moves two games ahead of Illinois for fifth in the conference.
In game one Illinois rallied from an early 11-4 deficit to take leads of 15-14, 16-15, and 18-16. Freshman libero Ashley Edinger served four straight points, including a pair of aces. Michigan State rolled off seven straight points, six on the serve of Allison Ianni, four on kills from Johnson. The Illini used another Edinger ace to make to close to within 26-24, but the Spartans closed out the game from there.
Illinois never led in the final two games, hitting -.027 with 13 hitting errors in game two and .171 with nine hitting errors in game three.
Kayani Turner, who came into the weekend as the Big Ten leader in kills per game, matched Johnson's kill total with 14 of her own. Edinger had nine digs to go along with her three aces.
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