University of Illinois
19-0, 8-0Big Ten
Michigan State
15-5, 4-4Big Ten
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 22 | 21 | 25 | 25 | 9 | 2 |
| Illinois | 25 | 25 | 18 | 23 | 15 | 3 |
Ward, No. 1 Illini Survive Spartans in Five Sets
October 15, 2011 | Volleyball
Oct. 15, 2011
Box Score
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -Colleen Ward had 22 kills and hit .538 as top-ranked Illinois survived a five-set battle with Michigan State 25-22, 25-21, 18-25, 23-15, 15-9 in front of 4,021 fans at Huff Hall. The crowd, the seventh largest in Huff Hall history, helped mark the first time in 19 years that the Illini have had multiple 4,000-plus crowds in the same season.
"Colleen was unstoppable tonight," Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said. "The thing I was happiest about was that a lot of those kills were out of the system. She made some great decisions and just went for it. She only had one error and that was on a block. That's pretty outstanding."
Three of the five Big Ten matches went five sets on Saturday with Illinois the only home team to come out on top. It marked the sixth time this season that Illinois has gone five sets, with the Illini coming out on top in all six to remain undefeated at 19-0 overall and tied with Nebraska for first place with identical 8-0 marks. The fifth-ranked Huskers came from two sets down to defeat Minnesota in Minneapolis. Illinois travels to both Northwestern (Wednesday) and Nebraska (Saturday) next week.
Although unranked, Michigan State (15-5, 4-4) posed one of the most physical and offensive-minded teams on the Illini schedule. The Spartans now have taken both Big Ten co-leaders to five sets, having lost to Nebraska in five earlier this year in East Lansing.
"They were just a big, physical team," setter Annie Luhrsen said. "At times they played a faster game and when teams do that it can push us to play a faster game and that's not our style. It was a serve and pass battle for most of the match"
Aside from the fifth set, Illinois battled from behind most of the night. The Illini came back from big deficits to win the first two sets. In set one, Michigan State built a 22-17 lead, only to see Illinois score the final eight points of the set for the win. Junior Erin Johnson served the final seven points, tallying two aces in the rally.
In set two, Michigan State built a 17-13 advantage before once again the Illini rallied to take the set. Illinois scored four straight points to tie it at 17-17 then took leads of 19-18, 20-19 and 23-21. Michelle Bartsch had kills on five of the Illini's final seven points of the set.
Michigan State committed to taking Illinois' middle attack out of the game, leaving it up to the outside hitters to pull the Illini through. Ward was impressive, adding four blocks and eight digs to match-high 22 kills. Bartsch was equally as impressive at times, adding 19 kills and 11 digs while hitting .228.
"At times Bartsch was really great and made some big swings," Hambly said. "She got out of rhythm at times, but that had a lot to do with the fact they had their best blocker on her."
Hambly said afterward that with Michigan State having such a strong offensive attack, it was up to his team to match that efficiency. In the sets the Illini won, they did just that, hitting .346, .438 and .308, respectively. In sets three and four, in which MSU prevailed, the Illini hit .139 and .038 respectively. Overall, Illinois out-hit its 18th opponent in 19 matches with a .258 overall clip, compared to just .200 for the Spartans.
"This was an offensive match," Hambly said. "I thought was played as well as we could against these guys. They are very good. It took hitting for high numbers to beat them. I like that about our team. We can play a defensive grind-it-out match like we did against Penn State or we can play an offensive match like we did against Michigan State tonight. The fact that we can adjust will bode well for us when we get into the NCAA Tournament."
Michigan State had three players with double-digit kills, paced by 16 kills and a .367 attack percentage from outside hitter Kyndra Abron. Jenilee Rathje and Becca Zlabis followed with 15 and 13, respectively.
The Spartans finally built an insurmountable lead in set three, leading 10-8, 16-11 and 23-16 before closing it out. The Spartans hit .276 and posted three blocks to out-physical the Illini in the set. Abron had three kills in six swings for MSU. Illinois had six attack errors and hit just .139 for the set. The Illini also sided out at just 47 percent.
Abron had four kills in the fourth set as the Spartans pulled out a competitive fourth set. The Spartans scored three of the final four points, the final on a triple block.
Through four sets, Michigan State had out-blocked Illinois, 11.5-10. Much the same as they had the last two victories, the Illinois block was ultimately the difference. Illinois had three blocks in that fifth set to finish with 13 for the match. Johnson was in on nine of those.
In fact, those three blocks came in the first seven Illinois points as the Illini built an 8-4 lead. Michigan State closed to within 9-8, forcing an Illinois timeout, before Luhrsen (41 assists, 10 digs) served three straight points to give the Illini a venerable 13-8 advantage.
"I think we came out with a different level of focus in that fifth set," Ward said. "It is all or nothing so you don't really have a chance to not be focused. I just thought we played smarter in the fifth set and we started hitting high hands a lot so we didn't get blocked as much."
