Dec. 5, 2014
Champaign, Ill. - The #9-seed Fighting Illini sped past Murray State to open the postseason, taking down the Racers, 3-0 (25-20, 25-9, 25-17), to advance to the NCAA Second Round. The win improves No. 10 Illinois to 25-7, while the Ohio Valley Conference Champions close the year at 26-6. Illinois moves on to play Iowa State on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Huff Hall after the Cyclones topped No. 25 Western Kentucky earlier in the day in their first round matchup. The match will be streamed live for free on BTN2Go.
"First, I want to congratulate Murray State on a great year," said Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly. "They were a tough team, they fought hard, and they were really competitive. We were fortunate to have a significant size advantage and I think we took advantage of that, but they had great spirit and they competed hard. I respect the heck out of what they've done and watching tape on them as much as we have, I thought it was a great team.
"I thought from our standpoint, it took us awhile to get going, especially defensively. They had a lot to do with that; they came out hot and it took us a while to adjust to them offensively. Once we did that, I felt like we played pretty good defensive, and offensively we did what we needed to. I thought Lex got a lot of hitters involved, got the middles involved. When we're doing that, usually our offense is pretty balanced and we hit at a high efficiency."
All-Big Ten outside hitter Jocelynn Birks put on an offensive display, hitting .444 with a match-leading 14 kills to go along with nine digs, three blocks and an ace. Liz McMahon put up eight kills, and Katie Stadick hit .636 with seven kills and no errors along with a team-best five blocks. Fellow middle Anna Dorn hit .444 with five kills and three blocks to help the Illini out-block the Racers, 9.5 to 3.
A key to Illinois' success was staying aggressive, as the Illini out-hit Murray State .348 to .090.
"That was the difference I thought," said Hambly. "We didn't play patty-cake early, we were going for it, and we were attacking. Otherwise, we would have been in some trouble, because I thought we had some hard time stopping them."
Setter Alexis Viliunas had a double-double with 34 assists, 10 digs and four blocks, and Brandi Donnelly led the match from the back row with 15 digs.
"I think our passing was good and whenever the passing is good, you can get the middles involved," said Viliunas. "Katie [Stadick] and Anna [Dorn] were getting up for me in transition, which is good and something that doesn't always happen. I was getting the ball to them and they were putting it down."
With the win, the Illini improve to 27-4 at home in NCAA Tournament matches, including 9-0 at Huff Hall under Coach Hambly. It is their 19th postseason sweep and the Orange and Blue are now 11-2 all-time in the First Round (64 or 48 teams).
Murray State was led on offense by Kristen Besselsen with 10 kills, followed by Scottie Ingram with nine and Taylor Olden with eight. Libero Ellie Lorenz posted a team-high 11 digs, while Ingram (9) and Olden (7) chipped in on defense as well. Setter Sam Bedard spread the ball around for 25 assists and had a solo block.
"They took some good cuts," said Hambly of his opponent. "They took some big swings, especially [Taylor Olden]. Olden, I thought she took some really good swings and Brandi did a really nice job of digging her in the cross, then she kind of forced. I don't think they did it because of the size; I think they had to because we were digging their hard stuff and they were trying to find ways to score. I thought Brandi did an excellent job of getting into that cross. I don't remember a ball hitting the floor or hitting the ten-foot line where we thought they'd hit that scored. I thought we dug all of those and it's nice to rely on that."
Illinois pulled away midway through the first set with a 4-0 run including two straight Birks kills to take a 13-7 lead. The Illini extended it to 18-11 on a Racer service error, and a kill by McMahon made it 23-15. An attack error by Olden set up Illini set point, but the Racers put the pressure on to pull within four, 24-20, before a Birks kill closed the opening frame, 25-20.
It was off to the races in set two, as the Illini cruised to a 25-9 victory, siding out a perfect 9-for-9 and hitting .406 while holding Murray State to -.029. For the second straight set, Birks posted six kills, while the Racers totaled just seven as a team.
Birks served the Illini to a 7-3 lead to begin the third set, and another solid run for the junior including three straight attack errors by Ingram pushed Illinois further in front, 22-9. The Racers would not back down, slamming four straight kills, three from Besselsen, to chip away at Illinois' lead, but a service error put a pin in it as the Illini took the third set, 25-17, to complete the 3-0 sweep.
