CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Behind a complete team effort that saw four Illini register double-figure kills, the Illinois volleyball team earned a 3-0 sweep of Iowa on Friday night at Huff Hall. With the win, UI improves to 12-6 (3-4 B1G), while the Hawkeyes fall to 10-10 (0-7) on the year.
"I thought we played pretty good defense tonight," said head coach Kevin Hambly. "The fact that we held them to 47 percent side-out percentage is a good sign. All in all defensively we did better, offense on the other hand we had too many errors. It was around 13 balls we hit out of bounds and that was a little disappointing but to pull out a 3-0 win and shake things off felt good. We definitely did not play good enough to Nebraska but we will see tomorrow."
"We worked really hard in practice this week," said Naya Crittenden. "I think tonight we put our heads in it. Obviously, there is still stuff we need to improve, but I think we did a good job tonight, especially at the end when we were trying to finish it out."
The Illini came out firing on all cylinders as they scored the first three points of the match en route to building a 10-3 lead and forcing the Hawkeyes to call timeout. A 6-2 run close the Iowa deficit to 17-13 before a Katie Stadick kill stopped the Iowa momentum. The two teams traded points down the stretch as the Illini rolled to a 25-16 win in the opening set.
UI again started hot as they built a 4-1 advantage in set two, but the Hawkeyes closed within 6-4. Spurred by back-to-back Michelle Strizak kills, the Illini went on a 7-2 run to open a 13-6 midway through the set. The Illini continued to control the set as they built at 19-12 edge, before finishing the set with a 5-1 run for a 25-16 win and a two-set lead.
After IU opened the third set with 5-1 start, Iowa battled back to take its first lead on the night at 6-5. The Illini evened the score at 7-7 on an Ali Stark ace, before rattling off four points to take an 11-7 advantage. UI held its lead throughout most of the set, but the Hawkeyes came back to knot it at 21-21. The two teams went back and forth through the final points with ties at 22, 23 and 24, but a Jocelynn Birks kill, followed by a Birks and Ali Bastianelli block sent the Illini to the 26-24 set win and the 3-0 match victory.
Strizak led all players with 12 kills on 18 attacks for a .500 hitting percentage, while Crittenden totaled 10 kills on 14 swings for a .571 hitting percentage. Birks and Stadick also joined the duo in double figures with 10 kills each on the night.
Jordyn Poulter posted 38 assists and eight digs against the Hawkeyes, with Brandi Donnelly and Julie Conard also recording 13 and nine digs, respectively.
Birks and Stadick added four block assists for the Illini, who notched 14 block assists in the match.
Illinois wraps up their four-match homestand on Saturday night, when the Illini look to Orange out Huff Hall as they face off against No. 3 Nebraska at 7:30 p.m. on BTN.
