University of Illinois
Alumni Match
Illinois Defeats Alumni in Four Sets
August 20, 2011 | Volleyball
Aug. 20, 2011
Champaign, Ill. - Colleen Ward had 16 kills and 18 digs and Erin Johnson added 11 kills and eight blocks while hitting .500 to pace Illinois to a four-set victory over the Alumni Saturday night in front of 864 fans at Huff Hall. The final set scores were 25-16, 30-28, 21-25, 25-19.
A total of six alumni saw the court with a few current players filling that side of the net. Sue Webber Jacobson led the Alumni with 12 kills and 16 digs. Three players from the 2010 Sweet 16 team were strong, paced by setter Hillary Haen who had 33 assists and 12 digs. Johannah Bangert had eight kills while Nicole Kump paced the Alumni with five blocks.
"It was nice to see the same style of play on both sides of the net," Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said. "Our former players still know how to compete. It was good for us to play against a competitive team like that. I would have liked to see us play better. Did I expect us to? Probably not. We have high expectations and have to pick up our game before next week."
The Illini broke open a 14-14 first set by out-scoring the Alumni, 11-2 to end set, then saw the Alumni push the Illini to the limit in the third set. Every Illinois player saw court time with freshmen Jocelynn Birks playing extensive minutes with the Alumni.
Fans were anxious to see the Illinois freshmern, who were led by Liz McMahon's seven kills. Morganne Criswell added four kills. The Illini used the same line-up for sets one and four where they posted convincing wins, but saw a lot of different players in the middle two sets.
"We mixed some things up a bit, but we needed to see what some kids were about,"Hambly said.
As usual, Illinois played a defensive minded game with several long rallies. The Illini had 86 digs on the night, paced by sophomore libero Jennifer Beltran's 19 digs. Senior Michelle Bartsch, who saw action in three of the four sets, had 16 digs to go along with 10 kills.
"I thought our play overall was mediocre, but that's why we play this match," Hambly said. "I see a lot of potential and a lot of work ahead of us.
This match comes six days before the season opener at BYU. The first match of the BYU/Nike Invitational against the host Cougars will be shown live at 5:30 pm on the BYU Network.
