Oct. 31, 2006

Champaign, Ill. -

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ILLINOIS AT AT GLANCE

Northwestern (11-10, 5-7) at Illinois (13-9, 4-8) When: Nov. 1, 7 p.m.
Where: Huff Hall, Champaign, Ill.
Radio: WDWS Radio (Dave Loane & Brian Moline)
Series Notes: Illinois leads the all-time series 41-21...Illinois is 16-6 vs. the Wildcats under Don Hardin... Wildcats head coach Keylor Chan is 5-8 vs. Illinois.
More on meeting earlier this year: Illinois played one of its best matches of the year in a three-game sweep of the Wildcats. Kayani Turner had 17 kills and Illinois hit for a season-high .336. That included a .417 percentage in game two and .351 in game three.

Illinois rebounded from a 15-8 deficit in game three. Ashley Edinger served five straight points, including three on aces in the comeback.

Alde faces former team: Stefanie Alde played for Northwestern the past two seasons, where she posted 81 kills, 40 blocks, 18 digs, and 11 aces as a freshman and 17 kills as a sophomore. This year Alde ranks third on the Illini in kills with 190.

Illinois (13-9, 4-8) at Iowa (13-11, 2-10)
When: Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
Where: Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Iowa City, Iowa
Radio: WDWS Radio (Brian Moline & Mike Koon)
Series Notes: Illinois leads the all-time series, 43-13 and is 17-4 under Don Hardin. The teams split last year's meeting with Iowa winning 30-27, 30-26, 35-33 in Champaign and the Illini winning 21-30, 30-26, 30-24, 30-26 in Iowa City.

Illini defeat Hawkeyes in Champaign: Kayani Turner had 23 kills and hit .333 and Amy Palash had 16 kills while hitting .293 in a 30-22, 24-30, 30-21, 30-21 victory over Iowa in Huff Hall on Sept. 30. The Illini had 13 blocks, including six in game three.

Bazzetta's performance vs. Wildcats, Hawkeyes earn her Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week: Lizzie Bazzetta was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 2 following Illinois' victories over Northwestern and Iowa last week.
•With 59 assists and 23 digs in the four-game victory over Iowa, Bazzetta posted her sixth double-double of the season which matches her six she had all of last season.
• Bazzetta had 41 assists and a .911 setting percentage, her second highest percentage of the year against Northwestern. She played a major role in the Illini hitting for a season-best .336.

Kayani Turner maintains Big Ten kills lead: Kayani Turner maintained her lead in the Big Ten kills per game in both overall matches (4.86 per game). She entered last week ranked 14th nationally in that category.

On the flip side, Turner missed the Oct. 15 match with Penn State with severe pain in her leg, a problem that has exasperated itself in recent weeks. She also missed most of the match vs. Indiana and has seen little practice time. Turner is in the process of receiving a series of injections to try to relieve the problem.
• Turner leads the conference and ranks 14th in the nation in kills per game.
• Her 19 kills and .459 hitting percentage helped Illinois to a three-game sweep of No. 16 Ohio State.
• Since the College of Charleston match on Sept. 9, Turner has 217 kills in 38 games (5.71 per game average).
• She has totaled 25 kills vs. Charleston, 23 vs. Iowa and 24 at Michigan.

Macdonald sets career-high in blocks: Meghan Macdonald had 10 blocks vs. Michigan on Oct. 27. She has moved into sixth in the conference in blocks per game (1.26) in conference matches and tenth in the league in overall matches (1.13).

McCulley shines in place of Turner: Freshman Kylie McCulley has been the beneficiary of Turner's misfortune. McCulley made her first trip into the starting rotation against Penn State and totaled 19 kills and a .265 hitting percentage. That included nine kills in the third game against on the nation's top five blocking teams.

Then at Indiana, McCulley entered the contest for Turner with the Illini trailing 20-6 in game one. McCulley had 22 kills and hit .222 in the last three-and-a-half games to lead the Illini to what turned out to be a convincing win from there.

Illinois 16th in latest RPI: As of last Thursday, Illinois was ranked 16th in the RPI rankings The RichKern.com/ AVCA Division I Regional Computer Index takes into consideration the Rich Kern Percentage Index (RKPI) of all NCAA Division I teams, then computes each region based on the overall ranking. The RKPI mimics the NCAA RPI published once during the season and once at the end of the season.
Mideast Region (Overall RKPI)
1. Penn State (3)
2. Minnesota (4)
3. Wisconsin (9)
4. Purdue (10)
5. Illinois (16)
6. Ohio State (25)
7. Michigan (27)
8. Ohio (36)
9. Northwestern (40)
10. Michigan State (54)
11. Bowling Green (58)
12. Iowa (81)
13. Fairfield (83)
14. Northern Illinois (98)
15. Indiana (118)

Bazzetta ranks second nationally in assists: Lizzie Bazzetta continues to rank second in the nation in assists per game at 14.01, behind only Courtney Thompson of Washington, who is at 14.85.
• Three other Big Ten setters are in the top 25 -- Rachel Hartmann of Minnesota (14th, 13.19), Jackie Simpson of Wisconsin (23rd, 13.00) and Allison Ianni of Michigan State (25th, 12.96).

Edinger picks up steam: Fellow freshman Ashley Edinger, the Illini libero, has really come on lately. "Ashley came out and played like a champion," coach Don Hardin said of her performance vs. Penn St. "She brought a great deal of maturity and poise to the team this weekend."
• With 360 digs, she has a chance to match Beth Vrdsky's season record of 520 from a year ago.
• Edinger ranks fifth in the Big Ten with 4.74 digs per game.

Illinois in NCAA Rankings: As of Oct. 16, Illinois is 17th nationally in assists (15.26) and 23rd in kills per game (16.37). The Illini have been ranked in the top 30 most of the season.

Illinois serving prowess returns: Illinois ranks second in the Big Ten in service aces (1.93), just percentage points behind Penn State, at 1.95 aces per game. Amy Palash (0.39) and Ashley Edinger each rank third individually in aces per game.

The Big Ten and the NCAA Tournament: Every year since 1997, at least six Big Ten teams have made the NCAA Field, including eight in 1999 and 2002 and seven in 2003 and 2004. In 1998, Michigan made the field with an 8-12 conference record and 16-13 overall mark and advanced to the second round. In 2004, Michigan and Purdue made the field with 9-11 Big Ten records. Purdue was 16-13 overall.

Vrdsky moves up digs chart: Earlier this season Beth Vrdsky became just the seventh player in school history with 1,000 digs. Last season she set the single-season record with 520 digs. Currently Vrdsky stands fifth with 1,108.

Illinois reaches Stuff Huff goal thanks to large student section: The Illini volleyball program set out to break 3,000 in attendance for the first round of the State Farm Illini Classic. The crowd of 3,129 was the largest since Nov. 6, 1993 when the Illini drew 3,161 vs. Minnesota. The crowd was also the first officially over 3,000 since Nov. 6, 1999 when 3,083 saw the Illini take on Penn State.
• Although no records are kept, the crowd was likely the largest student crowd in the history of Huff Hall. A total of 1,682 students used their student IDs to see the Illini take on ISU.

Vicki Brown earns two Tournament MVP honors: Vicki Brown earned the MVP honors at the State Farm Illini Classic after amassing 45 kills and nine blocks.
• Brown earned the same honor after hitting .514 at Marquette.
• Brown has had been in double digits in kills in each of the first six matches and has at least 15 kills in four of the first six.
• In the first match of the Marquette Kick-Off Tournament, Brown had 13 kills with no errors
in 15 attempts during the final three games of the match for a .867 attack percentage. She hit .667 overall for the match and .514 for the tournament.

Air Force ties: In March, Illinois junior Beth Vrdsky got the news she's been waiting most of her life to hear - she is one of the elite that has been selected into the Air Force Academy flight school. Ever since seeing the movie "Top Gun" as a youngster, Vrdsky has aspired to one day fly a fighter jet.

Vrdsky will finish her career both academically and athletically this season, and will leave for flight school to fulfill her dream. Vrdsky is one of 520 cadets selected into flight school out of all the ROTC programs nationwide. Illinois head coach Don Hardin, an Air Force veteran himself, was there to congratulate Vrdsky.

Beth Vrdsky featured in Big Ten's 25th Anniversary Video This year the Big Ten is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Big Ten Women's Athletics. One of the components of the celebration is a PSA campaign titled "This is My Big Ten Story." The conference selected 11 athletes, one from each school, past or present.

Beth Vrdsky represents Illinois as she tells of her dream of becoming a fighter pilot. One of the top rated cadets in the University of Illinois' ROTC program, Vrdsky received one of a select group of invitation to the competitive Air Force Flight School. She will begin training following graduation next year.