CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – In front of a soldout crowd of 4,152 raucous Illini fans, the Illinois volleyball team showed its grit despite falling to No. 4 Stanford, 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-22) on Stuff Huff Night at Huff Hall on Friday (Sept. 8).
The 4,152 fans in attendance marked the 13th match in program history with an attendance over 4,000 and was the seventh-best attended match in program history.
"It was a tough one tonight," said head coach Chris Tamas. "I think if we look back on film that we are going to see that we could have made a few plays here and there. But, it is also a good learning moment for us to play in this environment and have a couple freshman step in and returners played really well. Overall, I am proud of the play but I think, as always, there is room for improvement and I think we are going wish we had a few plays back. I think if we learn, we move on and that is pretty much what is going to happen. We take it for the next match tomorrow versus Colorado and we take it to the next week and after that."
Ali Bastianelli and redshirt-sophomore Beth Prince led the Illini (6-1) on the night as the junior middle blocker paced the team with a match-high 15 kills on a .619 hitting percentage and six blocks, while Prince notched a career-high 13 kills on a .440 attack percentage. Sophomore Jacqueline Quade added 11 kills on a .400 hitting clip and five digs in the match.
As a team, the Illini continued their impressive hitting percentage with a .409 mark in the match, including a .485 percentage in the opening set, as junior setter Jordyn Poulter registered 39 assists and a team-high six digs on the night.
It was a point-for-point start of the match until the Cardinal (5-1) took a 17-14 edge midway through the first, but the Illini battled back with a string on four-straight points, capped by a block from Bastianelli and freshman Megan Cooney put the Illini up 19-18. After back-to-back points from Bastianelli gave UI a two-point advantage at 23-21, the Cardinal responded with a four-point run of their own to take the opener, 25-23.
Early in the second, Stanford broke a 5-5 tie with a 6-0 run to grab an early 11-5 lead and would continue to hold it until a Bastianelli ace, followed by a Prince kill finished off a 5-1 run to even the score at 14-14. From there, the two teams traded the lead back-and-forth until Quade knocked back-to-back kills to grab a 20-18 edge. Stanford fought back to knot things at 22-22, before the next three of four points for the 25-23 set win and the 2-0 advantage in the match.
Out of the break, it was all Stanford as the visitors grabbed an early 12-6 lead on six-straight points, but again the Illini fought back as a Bastianelli and Jordyn Poulter block combined with a Cardinal hitting error brought the Illini within one at 14-13. A Bastianelli kill then even the set at 15-15, before Stanford pushed their lead back to 20-17. The Illini closed within 23-22 on a Quade kill, but back-to-back Cardinal kills finished the set and the match.
The Illini outblocked their opponent for the seventh-straight match, 9.0-8.0, with freshman Megan Cooney stuffing five on the night.
The Illini wrap up play in the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge on Saturday (September 9) against Colorado at 2:30 p.m. CT in Huff Hall.
For more Fighting Illini volleyball news, stay tuned to FightingIllini.com and follow @IlliniVBall on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook.
