CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The No. 7 Illinois volleyball team made quick work of Michigan State in a 3-0 sweep (25-17, 25-21, 25-21) on its annual Pink Match night in Huff Hall on Saturday (October 20).
Junior Jacqueline Quade led the Illini (18-3, 7-3 B1G) with a match-high 14 kills on a .355 hitting percentage, while senior Ali Bastianelli turned in 11 kills on a .438 attack clip. Redshirt-junior Beth Prince added 10 kills, while sophomore Megan Cooney tallied nine kills on a .333 hitting percentage.
Senior Jordyn Poulter had a balanced match with 43 assists, seven digs and a match-high four blocks, while leading the Illini to a .327 team attack percentage.
Bastianelli and junior Ashlyn Fleming added three blocks, with sophomore Morgan O'Brien registering a team-high nine digs to help hold the Spartans (15-8, 3-7 B1G) to a .198 team hitting percentage.
The Illini scored the first three points of the match on the serve of freshman Taylor Kuper, before taking a 9-3 advantage on an MSU hitting error. Five-straight scores from the visitors closed the gap to one at 9-8, but the Illini – leading at 10-9 - responded with a 12-3 run on the strength of the service game from Welsh and Fleming to take a 21-11 edge. MSU cut the deficit to 23-17 with a 6-2 run of their own, but back-to-back kills from Fleming and Prince gave the Illini a 25-17 set one win.
Illinois held a number of two-point leads at the start of the second set as a Welsh ace made it 12-10, before back-to-back scores gave the Illini a 14-11 advantage. After a UI service error, the Illini continued to hold a two-point lead until the home team took a 20-15 edge on a 4-1 run, capped by a Prince kill. The Spartans closed with 20-18 on three-straight points, but the Illini used three unanswered scores as a Poulter dump finished off the third, 25-21.
It was a back-and-forth beginning of the third set with six ties in the first 14 points, before the Spartans took a two-point advantage at 9-7 with back-to-back scores. From there, MSU continued to hold its slim lead until the Illini strung together five-straight points on the serve of Quade to retake a 16-14 edge. After an Illini error pulled the Spartans within one at 19-18, Quade answered back with back-to-back kills for a 21-18 lead. The two teams then traded points until a Quade kill sealed the 25-21 set win and the 3-0 victory.
Illinois has a quick turnaround as it welcomes Maryland on Wednesday (October 24) for Halloween at Haunted Huff Hall at 7 p.m. CT, before heading to Nebraska for a Saturday (October 27) night match at 7 p.m., in Lincoln, Neb.
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