Sept. 19, 2014Omaha, Neb. - No. 16 Illinois opened the Creighton Classic with a 3-1 victory over Creighton University on the Bluejays' home court of D.J. Sokol Arena. The Illini led the match 2-0 (25-15, 25-20) but were edged 26-24 in the third set before rebounding to earn their first four-set win of the season with a 25-22 victory in the fourth. The win lifts Illinois to 6-3 on the year, while Creighton takes its fifth loss to a ranked opponent this season, falling to 6-5 overall.
"I thought overall it was a team win, a team performance," said head coach Kevin Hambly. "I thought Lizzie played really well, especially when she got a good set.I thought Jocelynn played well. But I thought all around we all played well. The middles, we got to them, and offensively we were good."
Jocelynn Birks had a strong match across the board, hitting .325 with 18 kills, recording her 27th career double-double with 11 digs, stuffing three blocks and tying her career high with three service aces. Liz McMahon followed offensively with 15 kills and four blocks, and Katie Stadick matched the team lead with four blocks to go with five kills, hitting .455.
Alexis Viliunas posted her 18th double-double with 29 assists and 10 digs, while Allison Palmer registered 24 assists, four digs and an ace. True freshman libero Brandi Donnelly showed maturity in the back row, recording her second 20-dig match with a team-best 23.
"I thought Brandi passed nails and I thought that she did a great job playing defense in spots," said Hambly. "At the end, I thought she made three or four plays that were the difference. She was poised and she's grown up as a libero, and that's important for us."
A key to the Illini's victory this evening was winning the serve and pass battle, as Illinois recorded a season-best seven aces while stopping the Bluejays from landing even one. The Illini lacked a reception error for the first time since Sept. 25, 2011, in a three-set victory at Wisconsin, while tonight's match marked the first time since Nov. 4, 2005, a five-setter also at Wisconsin, that Illinois went deeper than three sets without allowing an ace.
"I thought we passed a whole lot better," said Hambly. "I thought (Creighton) would be tough coming in, they're a great serving team that presents a lot of challenges for us. And I thought they did, but we responded well. I thought Brandi was taking up as much court as she could and she made it easy on everybody else."
The Creighton offense was led by a trio of seniors, as two-time All-American middle Kelli Browning was tops with 16 kills, hitting .484, to go along with four blocks. Outside hitter Leah McNary followed with 13 kills, and Katie Neisler nearly doubled her career high with 12. Setter Maggie Baumert narrowly missed a double-double with 43 assists, nine digs and four blocks, and libero Kate Elman led the match with 26 digs.
Illinois was off and running early in the first set, as a strong serving run by Palmer propelled the Illini to a 10-2 lead. Illinois hit 1.000 through the first nine points of the match, and it wasn't until a Bluejay block at 13-6 finally forced Illinois' first error, as the Illini finished the frame attacking a solid .500. Creighton gained momentum deep in the set, but it was too little too late, as Illinois would take the opener, 25-15.
Illinois went ahead 5-2 to start the second set. Creighton kept the score close, holding the Illini to just a one-to-two point lead for much of the frame, but the Bluejays were unable to tie the score, and back-to-back aces by Davis gave the Orange and Blue a late 19-14 lead. A kill by McMahon gave Illinois its largest lead of the set, 22-16, and a Bluejay service error handed Illinois a 2-0 match lead with a 25-20 win in the second.
Creighton won the first point of the third set to take its first lead of the night and soon extended the advantage to 9-4. An Illinois timeout helped the Orange and Blue regroup, as the Illini forced three-straight hitting errors to pull back within two, 11-9, and a Dorn-McMahon block tied the score at 11. However, after serving up the 5-0 run, Viliunas served one into the net to give the Bluejays back the lead, as Creighton marched right back ahead, 18-14, and soon reached set point, 24-21. Illinois did not back down, as kills by McMahon and Birks followed by a Stadick-Birks block erased the deficit to tie the score at 24. However, the Bluejays rebounded to win the next two, closing the frame with a block by Browning and Baumert to take the third set, 26-24, and extend the match to a fourth set.
The Bluejays took an early 5-3 lead in the fourth, but back-to-back kills by McMahon tied the score at seven. A series of sideouts kept either team from making a run until a Stark-Stadick block helped Illinois push ahead, 13-11. However, the lead would not last, as Creighton tied the score at 14 then pulled ahead 17-15 off back-to-back kills by Lauren Smith. After calling a timeout, the Illini rattled off three-straight points to regain the lead, 18-17, and this time Illinois held on, pulling ahead 23-21 on an error by McNary and completing the four-set win off an error by Neisler to take the set, 25-22.
"I feel like human nature sets in and we start to relax," said Hambly. "We've talked about it...I thought we played really well in the first, we played well in the second, and I think Creighton had a good response. They're a good team and they started to figure some things out. It took us a while to get our heads wrapped around those adjustments and do what we needed to do, but I thought that our kids responded great in the fourth.
"(Creighton was) playing great and we were down and we didn't play our best, but I thought we battled, and fought and scrapped. And it was good; we haven't had a four-set win, we haven't played four sets yet. We've won in three and we've lost in five, and so it was nice to see us fight and scrap and figure out away to win that."
Illinois returns to the Creighton Classic on Saturday, Sept. 20, with a pair of matches against Colorado and South Dakota. The Illini open play against the Buffs at 10 a.m., then close the nonconference season at 5:30 p.m. with their first-ever meeting with the Coyotes, who upset Colorado in four sets earlier tonight. Live streaming video and audio are available for both matches, with the morning match airing live on WDWS 1400 AM and the evening contest being presented on a tape delay following the Illini Football Postgame Show.
