CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – With a season-high 22 kills on the night, redshirt-senior Jocelynn Birks broke the Illinois all-time kills record as the Fighting Illini volleyball team made it a season sweep of Northwestern with a 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 25-27, 25-18) victory on Saturday night (Nov. 7) at Huff Hall.
Illinois, who has posted four-straight wins, improves to 17-8 and 8-6 in the Big Ten Conference, while the Wildcats fall to 13-12 and 5-9 on the year.
"I thought we did a nice job defensively," said head coach Kevin Hambly. "I thought the job we did [a nice job] on Abbot, we talked about her being key. She came out and it looked like she was going to have a good night, and we had to figure some things out on her. Naya Crittenden - we were lucky to get that matchup on her and I thought Naya did a really nice job of managing her."
"It is a good win for us because they have got some players that can score, and they can do some things. We need to collect some wins in the Big Ten, and none of them are easy. I thought our commitment to play defense the way we wanted to play defense was the difference tonight, especially stopping the players we needed to stop."
Entering the match, Birks only needed three kills to break Laure DeBruler's record of 1,833 kills and after tying the record with two quick kills in the first, the 3,462 fans in attendance would have to wait until her first kill of the second set to see the record broken. The Willow Springs, Ill., native now owns 1,853 kills in her Illini career.Â
"I honestly was not focused on beating the record," said Birks. "It is a very cool feeling and definitely an honor. I obviously would not have be able to do it without my teammates."
It was a back-and-forth opening set as the two teams battled to a 13-13 tie, the 11th of the set, before the Illini used five-straight points to separate themselves from the visitors. Leading 18-13, UI pushed its advantage to 23-17 and finished off the set with back-to-back Michelle Strizak kills.
In another competitive start to the second set, neither team led by more than two points until midway through the set. Spurred by three-straight Wildcat errors, the Illini put together a 10-5 run to take command of the set with a 23-15 lead. After back-to-back NU points, the Illini shut the door with kills from Birks and junior Naya Crittenden. Â
In a set that saw 13 ties and four lead changes, Northwestern was the first team to grab a significant lead with a 21-17 advantage late in the period. Trailing 24-20, the Illini stormed back with help from Birks and the blocking game to knot the score at 24-24. With the set tied at 25-25, the Wildcats forced a fourth set with back-to-back points for the 27-25 set win.
Building off the momentum from the final points in the third, the Illini came out firing on all cylinders and sprinted out to a 5-1 edge, but the Wildcats continued to battle, twice cutting the lead to one. Leading at 11-10, UI fired off five-straight points, highlighted by a Birks, Crittenden and Katie Staddick block to give the home team a 16-10 advantage. A 5-2 mini run by the visitors closed the lead to 18-15, but a Stadick kill stalled the Northwestern comeback. The Orange and Blue then cruised to the set win, outscoring the Wildcats 8-3 in the final points of the fourth to take the 3-1 victory.
As a team, the Illini registered a .239 hitting percentage and collected a season-high 19.5 blocks, including one solo block and 37 blocking assists, which ranks fourth all-time in program history.
"That is the [one of the] best we have had in my time," said Hambly of the Illini's blocking performance. "I think Stadick was starting to get a good rhythm going. Naya made some incredible moves on the right, and that really frustrated them. They got predictable because of it. We also served well, kept them out of system so that they could not get the quick [sets] going."
"I thought Katie Stadick did the best job she's done in a month and a half. She's been trying to figure out some things, and has been struggling. That was huge, she had some great moves on [Northwestern's] Abbot."
Along her game-high 22 kills, Birks added 10 digs for her ninth double-double of the season and 51st of her career. It is also her fifth 20-kill match of the season and the 32nd of her career.
Crittenden notched her first career double-double with a season-high-tying 13 kills on 24 swings for a .417 hitting percentage and a career-high 11 blocks. Strizak joined Birks and Crittenden in double figures with 15 kills, while Stadick came within one block of equaling her career-high with a season-high 10 blocks in the win.
Freshman setter Jordyn Poulter was back in the starting lineup and paced the Illini with 47 assists, while adding 16 digs for her seventh double-double of her young career.
Defensively, sophomore Brandi Donnelly tied her career-high with 26 digs, with senior Julia Conard totaling 16 as well. Freshman Ali Bastianelli also notched eight blocks on the night.
The Illini will next head to Columbus, Ohio to take on the No. 12 Ohio State Buckeyes on Wednesday (Nov. 11) in St. John Arena. The match is slated to start at 5:30 p.m. CT and can be seen on BTN Plus.Â
