ILLINOIS VS. THE FIELD
After a three-match homestand, the No. 6 Illinois volleyball team is set to head out on a three-match road swing, first traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska, for a Saturday (October 27) night match against the No. 9 Huskers at 7 p.m. CT.
The Illini trail in the all-time series with Nebraska, 7-25-1 and are 2-12 in Lincoln. The two teams met earlier this season with the Huskers taking a 3-1 win on September 29 in Huff Hall.
Junior Jacqueline Quade paced the Illini in that match by equaling a season-high with 22 kills on a .269 hitting percentage, while redshirt-junior Beth Prince joined her in double digits with 12 kills on the night.
Senior Jordyn Poulter notched a double-double 42 assists and team-highs of 13 digs and four blocks, while classmate Ali Bastianelli also turned in a team-high four blocks. Defensively, sophomore Morgan O'Brien registered a team-high 13 digs.
ILLINI MAKE QUICK WORK IN SWEEP OF TERPS
Illinois put together another efficient performance as the Illini needed only an hour and 15 minutes to earn a 3-0 sweep of Maryland in Huff Hall on Wednesday (October 24) night.
It was the fourth-straight win and second-straight sweep for the Illini, who were paced by sophomore Megan Cooney, with a match-high 12 kills on a .455 hitting percentage, and junior Jacqueline Quade, who posted her eighth career double-double and fourth of the season with match-highs of 12 kills and 14 digs – with her 14 digs also tying a season-best.
Senior Jordyn Poulter directed the Illini offense to a .333 hitting percentage with 39 assists, while also adding seven digs, five blocks and four kills on the night. Junior Ashlyn Fleming led the team with six blocks and sophomore Morgan O'Brien added 12 digs to help hold the Terrapins to a .055 attack clip.
POULTER & BASTIANELLI NAMED SENIOR CLASS AWARD FINALISTS
Seniors Jordyn Poulter and Ali Bastianelli have been named two of 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, it was announced on Thursday (October 25). The award highlights student-athletes who excel both on and off the court.
Illinois is the lone school with two finalists, with the Big Ten boasting four of the final 10 finalists.
Candidates must have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
The finalists were chosen by a selection committee from the list of 30 candidates announced earlier in the season. Nationwide fan voting begins immediately, and fans are encouraged to vote on the Senior CLASS Award website through December 5. Fan votes will then be combined with media and Division I head coaches' votes to determine the winner.
The Senior CLASS Award winner will be announced during the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship in December.
POULTER NAMED BIG TEN CO-SETTER OF THE WEEK
After leading the Illini to a sweep of the state of Michigan over the weekend, senior Jordyn Poulter was named the Big Ten Conference Co-Setter of the Week, the league announced on Monday (October 22).
Poulter collects her fourth weekly conference accolade of the season and the seventh of her career, while the Illini as a team have earned six Big Ten weekly honors on the season.
The Aurora, Colorado native totaled 106 assists for a 13.25 assists per set average, while leading the Illini to a .266 team hitting percentage. Along with directing the offense, Poulter added 24 digs for a 3.00 digs per set mark, eight blocks, five kills with no errors on nine swings for a .556 hitting percentage and two service aces in the back-to-back wins.
Poulter made history on Friday night against the Wolverines as she moved into third place in program history for career assists with a career-high 63 helpers - and currently owns 4,536 assists in her Illini career – while also posting 17 digs, four blocks, four kills on a .571 attack clip and two service aces for her 10th double-double of the season and 33rd of her career. She then followed up that performance with another balanced outing with 43 assists, seven digs and a match-high four blocks, while leading the Illini to a .327 team attack percentage against the Spartans on Saturday night.
BASTIANELLI BECOMES CAREER BLOCKS LEADER AT ILLINOIS
Senior Ali Bastianelli has established herself as one of the all-time blocking greats and with five blocks in a win over Northwestern on October 6, became the career blocks leader at Illinois.
Entering the match, Bastianelli needed only three blocks to break Johannah Bangert's (2007-10) record of 653 total blocks and after tying the mark with stuffs in the opening set, the senior made history with her next block in the third. The Marysville, Michigan native currently owns 678 blocks in her Illini career.
Earlier this season Bastianelli became just the second player in program history to reach 600 career total blocks after crossing that threshold with 15 stuffs at the CSU Invitational on September 7-8.
BASTIANELLI BREAKS BIG TEN BLOCK ASSISTS RECORD
Along with becoming the Illinois career blocks leader this season, Bastianelli also became the Big Ten Conference career block assists leader with seven stuffs in a win against No. 13 Michigan on October 19, breaking former Illini Johannah Bangert's record of 613. The senior currently owns 622 block assists. s.
POULTER ENTERS TOP THREE IN CAREER ASSISTS
The quarterback of the Illini offense since she arrived on campus in 2015, senior Jordyn Poulter moved into third place in program history with a career-high 63 helpers on October 19 against No. 13 Michigan and currently owns 4,575 assists in her four years at Illinois. Melissa Beitz (1996-99) ranks first in program history with 5,797 assists from 1996-99.
Earlier this season, Poulter became just the fourth-ever Illini to reach 4,000 career assists in program history after posting 39 helpers in a win over Northern Iowa on September 14.
QUADE PACING ILLINI OFFENSE
Junior Jacqueline Quade has paced the Illini offense with 336 kills on the season for a 4.20 kills per set average on a .265 hitting percentage.
Quade leads the Big Ten and ranks 30th in the nation in kills per set, while her kill total sits second in the league and 36th in the NCAA.
Along with leading in kills, Quade also owns a conference-best 4.74 points per set mark, which also ranks 26th in the country. She has registered 379.5 total points on the season, good enough for second in the Big Ten and 33rd in the nation.
POULTER TOPS IN ASSISTS
Senior Jordyn Poulter leads the Big Ten and is fifth in the NCAA with 11.75 assists per set. She owns 940 helpers on the season to pace the conference and rank 16th in the country.
In conference action, Poulter ranks second with a 12.02 assists per set mark and has totaled a league-best 493 helpers.
With 4,575 total career assists, Poulter sits third in the NCAA active career leaders list.
AVCA TOP 25 WINS
With the win over No. 13 Michigan on October 19, the Illini have now registered seven wins against AVCA Top 25 teams, including a pair of Top-10 wins with No. 8 Wisconsin on October 13 and No. 10 Creighton on September 15.
Other top-25 wins for the Illini include No. 25 Colorado State, No. 21 Colorado, No. 13 Washington and No. 16 Purdue.
