Oct. 17, 2008

Box Score

Champaign, Ill. - After winning a pair of matches last week on the road, No. 17 Illinois had a chance to move into sole possession of third place with a victory over Northwestern. In a match filled with hitting errors, however, a fired up Northwestern Wildcats left Huff Hall with a five-set 25-20, 25-27, 11-25, 25-19, 19-17 victory.

With the loss, the Illini are now 13-5 overall and 4-3 in the Big Ten. The Wildcats with their first conference win of the season are now 7-11 overall and 1-6 in the conference.

"This was a high hitting error match," said Illinois head coach Don Hardin. "It was hard fought at the end, but it took that for us to put that kind of fighting effort forward."

The Illini were paced by sophomore Laura DeBruler who had her 23rd career 20-kill match tallying 26 kills along with 16 digs. Freshman Michelle Bartsch added 14 kills and had four block assists, while sophomore Johannah Bangert, the fourth-leading blocker in the nation, had eight block assists and one solo block for the Fighting Illini.

Illinois got in a rhythm at times, especially in a dominating 25-11 win in set three, but the Illini missed an opportunity to close the door in the fourth set and Northwestern punctured the Illinois defense with the back slide in the fifth set.

While teams combined for 63 hitting errors, the match had its share of strong defensive moments. Northwestern libero Kate Nobilo, finished with a match-high 34 digs while Illinois place four players in double digits in digs - Ashley Edinger (25), Laura DeBruler (16), Kylie McCulley (career-high 16) and Hillary Haen (14).

The Orange and Blue stormed out to an 11-4 lead early on in the first set and it was all Illini after that. The Wildcats inched closer but could not overcome the tenacious Illini, as Illinois took the first set, 25-20.

The Wildcats came out fired up in the second set taking the Illini out of their rhythm. The Illini were able to close the gap behind five kills from Laura DeBruler and four kills from freshman Michelle Bartsch, but the Wildcats closed out the set, 27-25.

After the break, the Illini came out on a mission, hitting an impressive .367 behind a balanced attack. The Wildcats hit a sluggish -.081 and the Illini capitalized on that, going on a 7-0 run, their longest run of the set. With kills by DeBruler and Haen, the Orange and Blue closed out the set 25-11 to take a 2-1 lead.

Northwestern was not willing to go down without a fight as they stuck around in the fourth set, hitting .357 compared to just .211 from the Illini. After trading points back and forth throughout the set, the Wildcats ran away at the end, taking the fourth set, 25-19.

In the deciding set, it was a back and forth affair between the two squads. With Northwestern at match point 14-12 the Illini took the next two points to even the set at 14-14 all. The Illini were unable to capitalize at match point 17-16 as the Wildcats evened the score 17-all. Northwestern served out the set and took the match 19-17 in the fifth set.

"The underdog in a close fifth set always has an emotional advantage," Hardin said. "It was a good performance by Northwestern, but we let them get a good feeling with our hitting errors tonight."

Northwestern held a narrow advantage in blocking 14.5-13, led by eight blocks from Chelsy Hyser.

The Illini look to rebound Sunday afternoon in another Big Ten battle against the Wisconsin Badgers at 1 p.m. CT at Huff Hall.