CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Following a five-week, 12-match road trip that covered over 10,200 miles, the Illinois volleyball team returned home to Huff Hall for IlliNOISE Night, falling to No. 3 Penn State, 3-1, in Champaign on Friday, October 9. The Illini drop to 11-5 (2-3 B1G), while the Nittany Lions improve to 15-1 (4-1 B1G).
"They're [Penn State] a good team and they have some great weapons," said Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly. "I thought Whitney, Courtney and Washington were all a handful; they have a bunch of kids that can play, especially Whitney. [Whitney] was just going over us and we couldn't touch. We had to scramble and do a lot of things on the fly to squash some things. It was good to see us actually figure some things out and execute them in the third and fourth set. The thing that I like the most was that we started to fight, and put our hearts out there, and scramble. We need that, and we've been lacking for a while for whatever reason. It was nice to see us to do that. In the first two sets we played too frantic and made too many errors. We gave them eight or nine points in those [first two] sets. It was like we were handicapping ourselves. I thought we settled down and did a good job in the third and fourth sets until we went back to making errors. If we don't make those errors, we could have won that set."
The first set opened with back-and-forth play as both teams settled into a rhythm, before PSU opened an 18-12 lead following five-straight points. A kill by Michelle Strizak brought the Illini to within 19-15, but the visitors then used a 6-1 run to close out the opening period, 25-16.
Similar to the first set, both teams went point-for-point with the score tied at 7-7. The visitors sprinted ahead to 12-8, but a Jocelynn Birks kill combined with a PSU attacking error brought the home team within two at 15-13. A 4-1 spurt by Penn State gave the visitors some breathing room at 19-14 as the Nittany Lions finished out the second set 25-18.
Out of intermission, Birks put the Illini up to start things off before PSU took a 7-4 advantage. The Nittany Lions held onto their as the two teams battled, building an 17-11 lead midway through the set. Trailing 18-22, the Illini looked out of the match as the visitors earned their first match point at 24-21. Putting the fight in Fighting Illini, the Orange and Blue strung together five-straight points, including three kills from Birks to take the third set, 26-24.
The drama continued into the fourth set with four ties through the first 21 points at 7-7, 9-9, 10-10 and 11-11, before PSU grabbed a 16-12 lead. The Illini then battled back to even the score at 17-17 behind three kills from Birks. The two teams traded points over the next several plays as each team battled for the set. With the score knotted at 25-25, back-to-back kills from Megan Courtney sent the visitors to a 27-25 win in the fourth and a 3-1 victory in the match.
In the second-ever IlliNOISE Night promotion, where the UI Marketing & Promotions Staff took a decibel meter during the match, the Illini faithful topped last season's record-reading of 105 dB with a new mark of 107 dB.
Strizak finished with a career-high and led all players with 22 kills on 52 attacks and hitting .308 in the match.
Birks earned her 47th career double-double and her fifth this season with a 21-kill, 10-dig performance. It was Birks' third-straight 20-kill match and the 30th of her career.
Freshman Jordyn Poulter registered 46 assists and eight digs, while sophomore Brandi Donnelly came within one dig of her career high after recording a season-high 25 digs against the Nittany Lions.
Katie Stadick contributed four kills and Ali Bastianelli totaled five blocking assists.
The Illini continue their four-match homestand on Saturday night, when the Orange and Blue welcome No. 9 Ohio State to Huff Hall at 7 p.m. CT on BTN Plus.
