Sept. 8, 2006
Final Stats
Chapel Hill, N.C. -
Illinois spoiled the home opener for North Carolina Friday night in front over 1,000 fans, mostly students, in a loud Carmichael Arena. The Illini battled all night en route to a straight games 30-28, 35-33, 30-26 victory over the Tar Heels to improve to 7-0 on the season in the first match of the GlaxoSmithKline Invitational.
The signature moment came in the second game. The Illini fought off four straight North Carolina game points and because they had exhausted their substitutions defensive specialists Stephanie Obermeier and Beth Vrdsky shared the front row in the pivotal last few points of the match. Obermeier was aggressive on an attack leading to Meghan Macondald's kill off the back slide which staved off the final match point of Carolina. With Vrdsky moving to the front row, she teamed with Macdonald to form a block attempt and had a ball hit off her fingers allowing the next point to remain alive. Obermeier eventually served the deciding point of the match, forcing a service error by North Carolina.
"We had Beth Vrdsky blocking at the net," Illinois head coach Don Hardin said. "If we would have had to have set her, I believe she would have put it away."
All three games were hard fought. Game one had 11 ties and four lead changes. The Illini trailed early 12-9, but took the lead for good at 25-24 on a kill from Stephanie Alde. Alde later teamed with Vicki Brown on a key block as Illinois pulled out the win. Alde was hitting on all cylinders on this night with 13 kills and an amazing .632 hitting percentage to go along with three block assists.
"Stephanie Alde has been working really hard to keep her consistency up and tonight it really paid off," Hardin said.
In that thrilling second game, Illinois trailed 23-19 before coming back to take a 26-24 lead behind three kills from Kayani Turner, who led Illinois with 14 kills. Middle blocker Vicki Brown had her seventh straight double-digit kills match with 10 kills and a .350 hitting percentage.
Alde had six kills in eight attacks in the third game as Illinois pulled in front 25-18. Behind the arms of Noelle Dyk and Christine Vaughn, the Tar Heels (1-6) nearly made a huge comeback, closing the margin to 26-25. Turner and Rachel Henderson had kills before fittingly Alde ended it with a big swing of her own. Middle blocker Meghan Macdonald had four of her seven kills in game three.
Lizzie Bazzetta had 44 assists while freshman libero Ashley Edinger paced the defense with 11 digs. Vrdsky's six digs give her 978 for her career, moving her past Kathleen Bazzetta for seventh on the Illini's all-time digs list.
"We're still not playing our best volleyball and we're mixing and matching some things, but we're gutting it out," Hardin said. "There's a lot of fight and spirit in this group."
Wichita State (7-1) defeated the College of Charleston (3-2) in four games in the first match of the night. The Illini meet both of those teams on Saturday.
