LINCOLN, Neb. – The Illinois volleyball team brought the battle to No. 7 Nebraska, before falling to the Huskers in four sets (19-25, 26-24, 25-20, 25-17) on Saturday (October 21) night in the Devaney Center.
The Illini (16-5, 7-3) were paced by junior Ali Bastianelli, who registered her fifth-straight double-digit kill outing and 12th of the season with a team-high 13 kills with no errors in 17 swings for a .765 hitting percentage to go along with a team-high five blocks. Redshirt-sophomore Beth Prince joined the middle blocker in double figures with 12 kills, while freshman Tyanna Omazic added a career-high nine kills and four blocks and sophomore Jacqueline Quade also notched nine kills on the night.
Junior Jordyn Poulter orchestrated the Illini offense to a .252 attack percentage with 43 assists, while also posting seven digs and four blocks.
Defensively, freshman Morgan O'Brien led the Illini with 16 digs, with sophomore Caroline Welsh coming within one dig of a career-high with 15 against the Huskers (16-4, 9-1).
After a Bastianelli kill gave the Illini an early 3-2 lead, the Huskers strung together six-straight points to build an 8-3 lead. The Illini batted back with three-straight points of their own to cut the edge to one at 12-11, but five unanswered points pushed the Husker lead to 17-11. Back-to-back points from Omazic again closed the gap to two at 19-17, but Nebraska then finished off the opening set with a 6-2 run for the 25-19 win.
It was a tightly contested start to the second as the two teams traded the lead back-and-forth until the Illini used six-straight points to propel them from an 8-6 deficit to a 12-8 advantage. UI continued to hold the lead as Omazic and Prince teamed up for block to push the UI edge to 15-10, but the Huskers stayed close with back-to-back kills bringing the home team to within 18-16. With the Illini leading 23-20 after a Prince kill, the Huskers put together three-straight points to knot the score at 23-23. After the home team fought off the first Illini set point, a Quade kill set up the second set point, before Poulter and Bastianelli finished off the 26-24 set victory with a stuff and evened the match at 1-1.
Out of intermission, the Huskers used an early 6-1 run to build a 12-5 edge. After a NU hitting error brought the Illini within 15-10, the Huskers pushed their lead out to 23-13 on an 8-3 run. Despite the deficit, the Illini continued to battle by scoring the next six points and cutting the lead to 23-19, but the Huskers then closed out the set with kills from Kelly Hunter and Mikaela Foecke.
The Illini jumped out of the gate in the fourth as a Prince kill put the visitors up 4-1, before the Huskers came back to knot things at 5-5. Back-to-back points on a Quade kill and a block from Quade and Omazic gave the 9-7 edge, but five-straight points from the home team put the Huskers up 12-9. After a Cooney kill slowed the NU run, a Bastianelli and Poulter block brought the Illiini within one at 14-13. Nebraska answered back with four-straight points for an 18-13 advantage. The Illini closed within 18-15 with back-to-back points, but Nebraska wrapped up the match with a 7-2 run to take the fourth set, 25-17.
The Illini next head to Minneapolis, Minn., for a midweek Big Ten Network match-up against No. 5 Minnesota at 8 p.m. CT on Wednesday (October 25), before returning home to host No. 1 Penn State in Huff Hall on Saturday (October 28) at 7 p.m.
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