Oct. 12, 2007

Iowa City, Iowa - With junior outside hitter Kylie McCulley needing a couple of more weeks to recover from a stress fracture in her foot and senior middle blocker Vicki Brown out of the line-up with an injured hand, Illinois put four freshmen and one sophomore in the starting rotation Friday night. The young squad responded with a three-game sweep at Iowa, winning 30-26, 30-28, 30-24. With the victory Illinois improves to 11-6 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten while the host Hawkeyes fall to 9-9 overall, 1-6 in the conference.

Freshman Abby Nelson was a late replacement in the line-up and filled Brown's shoes in the middle by tallying seven kills while hitting .214 and leading the Illini with five blocks. Fellow freshman Nicole Kump had the best day of her young career, starting on the outside. Kump was one of three Illini in double figures in kills with 10. Johannah Bangert started alongside Nelson in the middle and hit .429 with eight kills while trailing only Nelson on the squad in blocks with four.

"I try to provide a positive attitude all the time," Nelson said. "(The contributions of the young players) shows great potential for the future."

"We have confidence going to Abby," said Illinois head coach Don Hardin. "All of the freshmen are extremely talented. We talk about Laura (DeBruler) because she's out there so much, but tonight we saw what some of our other freshmen can do."

DeBruler, one week removed from earning Big Ten Player of the Week, turned it on in the third game to post 15 kills and six digs besides being keyed on by the challenging Iowa block. DeBruler entered the match with the third most kills of any freshman in the country at 4.67 per game and bettered that with a 5.0 kills per game performance.

Neither team hit with great accuracy in the first two games with the Hawkeyes actually out-hitting the Illini .126-.106 in those games. The Illini had a much improved performance in the serve-receive game with Iowa able to convert just one ace on the night.

For much of the night, Illinois had to deal with the Iowa block. The Hawkeyes out-blocked the Illini 12-7 in the first two games and finished with a 14-9 advantage.

The difference in the match was Illinois being able to push through in crucial situations. Senior Stefanie Alde (10 kills, .278 average) represented the upperclassmen in that category. Trailing 10-8 in the first game, Alde took a quick set to the middle from junior Lizzie Bazzetta (46 assists, 11 digs) and tied with the score with a big swing to the middle of the Iowa backcourt. Nelson and Alde combined on a block to put the Illini in front 17-15. Iowa made a big comeback in the first game, scoring four straight points to turn a 27-22 deficit into trailing by just one point. But DeBruler came through with a big kill then served the final two points of the game, one on an ace as the Illini closed out the game.

Illinois had to overcome a four-point deficit in game two. Again DeBruler had the key service points with an energetic Nelson closing out the game on a big swing on another quick set from Bazzetta.

After manufacturing the wins in the first two games, the Illini had a much more dominant performance in the third game. The Illini hit .308 with DeBruler and Kump providing six and five kills, respectively.

Illinois travels to No. 11 Minnesota Saturday with a 7 p.m. match.