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ILLINOIS VS. THE FIELD
The Illinois volleyball team continues its three-match homestand on Wednesday (November 1) night as the Illini host Northwestern in a Big Ten Network-broadcasted contest at 8 p.m. CT in Huff Hall.
The Illini hold a 57-29 advantage in the all-time series with the Wildcats and have won six-straight, including earning a straight-sets win earlier this season on September 23 in a hot and humid Beardsley Gym at Evanston Township High School.
Sophomore Jacqueline Quade and redshirt-sophomore Beth Prince paced the Illini with 11 kills each, while junior Jordyn Poulter notched 33 assists en route to a team hitting percentage of .405, including hitting over .400 in the first and third sets.
LAST TIME OUT
Sophomore Jacqueline Quade paced the Illini with 16 kills on a .406 hitting percentage, but the Illinois volleyball team suffered a three-set (30-28, 25-11, 25-15) setback to top-ranked Penn State on Saturday (October 28) night in Huff Hall.
Redshirt-sophomore Beth Prince notched nine kills for the Illini, while freshman Megan Cooney added seven kills on the night.
Junior Jordyn Poulter tallied 34 assists against the Nittany Lions, while defensively freshman Morgan O'Brien led the Illini with 10 digs.
Freshman Tyanna Omazic paced UI on the block with three stuffs, with Prince, Cooney and junior Ali Bastianelli each turning in two in the match.
ILLINI IN THE POLLS
In the most recent NCAA volleyball RPI, the Fighting Illini volleyball team held strong in the top 25 and sit at No. 25 in the newest rankings.
After debuting at No. 24 in the season's first RPI on October 2, the Illini moved up to No. 22 the following week on October 9 and reached their season-high of No. 19 on October 16.
The Illini have also appeared in the receiving votes section of the AVCA Coaches Top 25 poll for nine-straight weeks after entering the rankings on September 4.
ILLINI IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS
The Illini continued their strong blocking game and rank 12th in the NCAA and first in the Big Ten in blocks per set at a 2.96 clip as well as 13th in hitting percentage (.282) and 25th in total blocks (239.5).
Individually, junior Ali Bastianelli ranks third in the nation with 1.72 blocks per set, ninth with 134 total blocks and is 20th with a .406 hitting percentage.
Junior Jordyn Poulter also ranks 30th with a 11.01 assists per set average and is 71st with 892 total helpers, while junior Blayke Hranicka also sits 59th with a .365 attack percentage.
ILLINI FACING OFF AGAINST TOP FOES IN 2017
The Fighting Illini volleyball consistently plays a demanding schedule year in and year out, and 2017 is no different as Illinois has played the 23rd-most difficult schedule this season.
This season, the Illini have taken on eight teams that appear in this week's AVCA Top 25 poll - including six in the top 10 - in No. 1 Penn State, No. 2 Stanford, No. 5 Minnesota, No. 7 Nebraska, No. 8 Wisconsin, No. 9 Michigan State, No. 22 Purdue and No. 25 Western Kentucky, while also taking on two teams that are receiving votes in Colorado and Missouri State.
The Illini own the 18th-toughest schedule in the NCAA moving forward with future foes, while between past and future opposition, Illinois holds the 14th-toughest schedule in the NCAA.
POULTER & QUADE DOUBLE UP
Together junior Jordyn Poulter and sophomore Jacqueline Quade own all nine of the Illini's double-doubles this season, with the setter turning in seven and the outside hitter registering two on the season, with the duo each posting double-doubles against Missouri State (Sept. 16) and No. 5 Minnesota (Oct. 25).
In her three seasons in Champaign, Poulter has totaled 17 career double-doubles, while Quade has tallied three in her two years in the Orange and Blue.
Along with the double-doubles, Poulter has come close to notching the program's 13th triple-double on multiple occasions, first coming within three blocks of the mark with 47 assists, 12 digs and seven blocks – all match-highs - in a win over Indiana on October 7.
She also turned in one of her best performances of the season against No. 7 Nebraska and was just two blocks shy with 52 assists, 14 digs and eight blocks in the match.
POULTER REACHES 3,000 ASSISTS
The quarterback of the Illini offense since she arrived on campus in 2015, junior Jordyn Poulter entered the top 10 in career assists earlier this season and with 52 helpers in a win over Iowa on October 20 became just the eighth player to reach 3,000 assists in program history.
She currently ranks eighth all-time with 3,170 helpers, with Betsy Eiserman (1999-02), who owns 3,578 assists and ranks in seventh place, next in Poulter's path. Melissa Beitz (1996-99) ranks first in program history with 5,797 assists from 1996-99.
BLOCKIN' BASTIANELLI IN THE RECORD BOOKS
In just three seasons, junior Ali Bastianelli has etched her named in the Illini record books and with eight blocks against No. 5 Minnesota last Wednesday night, the Marysville, Mich., native became just the sixth player in program history to reach 500 career total blocks. She currently sits sixth with her 502 stuffs and is just 20 blocks to enter in a tie for fifth with Nancy Brookhart (1986-89), while player and director of operations Johannah Bangert owns the program record with 653 blocks from 2007-10.
Bastianelli has also entered the top 10 for career blocks assists this season and currently sits in third place with 459. Anna Dorn (2010-14) sits 71 block assists away in second place with 530, while Bangert also holds the career record for block assists at 613.
ILLINI SET HITTING PERCENTAGE RECORD AGAINST WKU
The Illini set a new single-match hitting percentage school record en route to a sweep of No. 24 Western Kentucky on Saturday as part of the Cardinal Classic. Swinging .652 as a team, the Illini led by a .917 hitting percentage from junior Ali Bastianelli.
Topping the previous school record of .635 set back on September 1, 1992 at Northwestern, the Illini were hitting on all cylinders on Saturday morning, finishing each set with an attack percentage north of .600, with a first-set mark of .708, a second-set clip of .632 and a third-set .609 percentage. The best single-match team hitting percentage during the rally-scoring era, which began in 2001, was a .483 performance against Murray State at Huff Hall on September 17, 2016.
TAMAS NAMED EIGHTH VOLLEYBALL HEAD COACH
Following the departure of former head coach Kevin Hambly to Stanford in January, Director of Athletes Josh Whitman selected Chris Tamas as the new head coach of the Fighting Illini volleyball program on February 10, 2017. He is the eighth head coach in the history of the program.
Tamas came to Illinois following many years learning from some of the game's great coaches, including John Cook at Nebraska and former U.S. National Team coaches Hugh McCutcheon and Ron Larsen. In all, Tamas is in his ninth year of collegiate coaching including two years at Nebraska, two years at Cal Poly, two years at Minnesota and two years at UC-Riverside.
Tamas is a 2003 graduate of the University of the Pacific with a degree in sports sciences. He was a four-year starter for the Tigers and a unanimous AVCA All-American first team selection and team MVP during his 2003 senior season. In four years with the U.S. Men's National Team (1999, 2003, 2005-06), Tamas made 34 appearances, and, in 1999, helped the squad to a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Havana. As national team captain in 2003, Tamas helped lead the United State to a bronze medal at the World University Games in Daegu, South Korea.
A training camp invitee for the U.S. squad that eventually captured the 2008 Olympic gold medal, Tamas also helped U.S. teams to silver at the 2005 World Grand Champions Cup in Japan and, as a setter, to a gold at the 2006 NORCECA Championships in Mexicali, Mexico.
As a professional, Tamas competed for six years overseas with clubs Protect Eye Orion (Netherlands), Antigos Alunos (Portugal), Real Grupo (Spain), Erdemir (Turkey), Dionysos (Cyprus) and Isku (Finland). In Finland and Cyprus, Tamas helped his clubs to national cup championships.
