April 19, 2011

Champaign, Ill. - Box Score

With just a few days left in the spring season, the Illinois team faced a tough challenge from Tianjin, the Chinese professional champion, on Tuesday night. The Illini hit .360 in posting a five-set come-from-behind victory. A crowd of over 500 saw Illinois prevail 25-12, 25-27, 24-26, 25-23, 15-8.

Trailing two sets to one, the Illini rallied from down 19-15 in set four to take the set and send it into the deciding frame. The match featured a 20-mintue delay because of tornado warnings in the area.

Illinois' outside hitters were impressive. Junior All-Americans Colleen Ward and Michelle Bartsch tallied 23 and 21 kills, respectively, while the Illini out-blocked the Chinese team, 10-3. Middle blocker Erin Johnson hit .609 with 15 kills and eight blocks, and Illinois' new starting setter Annie Luhrsen engineered a high efficiency offense to go along with a team-leading 16 digs. Ward had four of the Illini's seven aces.

"It's good to see we're getting a good rhythm with our setter," Ward said. "It was a great match going to five."

The Illini hit .583 with 14 kills in dominating the first set, then became a little error prone in dropping sets two and three. Tianjin kept rallies alive and fed its hitters, Zhang Xiaoyu (10 kills), Zhang Xiaoting (14 kills) and Li Ying (14 kills).

"I think for this time of year, it was kind of what we expected," Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said. "We were fortune enough to play them their first match off the plane. They are going to be a whole lot better as this trip goes on. It took us awhile to get going emotionally, but we showed some good things out there once we did. Erin Johnson showed tonight was we see in practice, getting better all the time, and our two outsides can score and put up big numbers."