Ohio State & Maryland
Match 24: Ohio State (12-12, 3-9)	Friday, November 2, 2018 | 6 p.m. CT | St. John Arena | Columbus, Ohio Video: BTN Plus ($) | Audio: WDWS 1400 | Livestats
Match 25: Maryland (14-10, 5-7)	Sunday, November 4, 2018 | 12 p.m. CT | XFINITY Pavilion | College Park, Maryland Video: BTN Plus ($) | Audio: WDWS 1400 | Livestats
Full Match Notes	Illinois | Ohio State
Statistics	Illinois | Ohio State | Maryland
Series History	Ohio State: Illinois leads, 42-41 | Last Match: Illinois won, 3-2 on 11/25/2017 | Streak: Won 3 | Results Maryland: Illinois leads, 7-0 | Last: Illinois won, 3-0, on 10/24/2018 | Streak: Won 7 | Results
Tickets	Ohio State | Maryland
Senior CLASS Award	VOTE FOR POULTER & BASTIANELLI!
Social Media	@IlliniVball  | #Illini  | Facebook  | @IlliniVBall  | YouTube

ILLINOIS VS. THE FIELD

The No. 4 Illinois volleyball team continues its three-match road swing this weekend with a Friday (November 2) night match against Ohio State at 6 p.m. CT in Columbus, Ohio, before traveling to College Park, Maryland, to face Maryland on Sunday (November 4) at 12 p.m. CT.

The Illini hold a slight 42-41 edge in the all-time series with the Buckeyes, but trail 16-19 in Columbus. UI swept both meetings with OSU a season ago, including a thrilling, come-from-behind 3-2 victory in St. John Arena in the 2017 regular season finale. 

The Illini own a 7-0 record in the all-time series against the Terrapins, including a 2-0 mark in College Park. There will be just nine days between 2018's two meetings as Illinois needed just an hour and 15 minutes to earn a 3-0 sweep on October 24 in Huff Hall. 

UI was paced by sophomore Megan Cooney in the win, 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.

STRONG DEFENSE LEADS ILLINI PAST HUSKERS

Behind a strong defensive effort, the No. 4 Illinois volleyball team earned a 3-1 win over the-No. 9 Nebraska on Saturday (October 27) night at the Devaney Sports Center. It was the first win over the Huskers since 2014 when the Illini swept both meetings with a 3-1 win on October 18 in Lincoln and a 3-2 victory on November 26 in Champaign.

Junior Jacqueline Quade notched her second-straight double-double, ninth of her career and fifth of the season with a match-high 23 kills and 13 digs, while senior Ali Bastianelli turned in 10 kills on a .348 hitting percentage and five blocks. Junior Ashlyn Fleming added nine kills on only one error in 22 swings for a .364 attack clip and a team-high six blocks.

Senior Jordyn Poulter also registered her 34th career double-double and 11th of the season with 49 assists and a season-high 18 digs to go along with three blocks and three kills.

Defensively, sophomore Morgan O'Brien totaled a career-high 32 digs, tying for the seventh-most digs in a single match in program history, while freshman Taylor Kuper also posted a career-high 25 digs and junior Caroline Welsh added 11 digs on the night as the Illini held the Huskers to a .099 team hitting percentage.   

ILLINI RANKED NO. 2 IN NCAA RPI

In the first NCAA RPI ranking of the 2018 season - released on October 1, the Illini led the Big Ten with a debut ranking of No. 3, sitting just behind No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 BYU and moved up one spot this week with a No. 2 ranking.

There are nine Illini opponents in the top 20, including No. 4 Minnesota, No. 6 Wisconsin, No. 12 Purdue, No. 13 Michigan, No. 14 Nebraska, No. 15 Northern Iowa, No. 16 Penn State and No. 17 Creighton.

Of all of the Illini's opponents only three foes - Lipscomb (No. 125), Northern Colorado (No. 126) and Rutgers (No. 198) are out of the Top 115, with only six opponents ranking out of the top 80.

ILLINI MOVE UP TO NO. 4 IN AVCA POLL

For the first time since the 2011 season, Illinois moved into the top-five of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA)  Coaches Top 25 poll with a No. 4 ranking in the latest AVCA poll. 

The 2011 Illini concluded the season ranked at No. 2 after a runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament. The last time the Illini were ranked at No. 4 was on September 5, 2011, with the Illini reaching the No. 1 ranking on September 26, 2011 and staying atop the polls for four-straight weeks. 

UI opened the 2018 season with a No. 12 ranking in the AVCA Preseason poll and have gradually moved up the polls. Following the opening weekend, UI moved to No. 11 for two weeks and then jumped into the top-10 for the first time since the 2015 season with a No. 8 ranking for two weeks. From there, the Illini owned the No. 7 spot in the polls for four weeks, before moving to No. 6 last week. 

Illinois is joined by six other Big Ten schools ranked the AVCA Poll this week and are the second-highest behind No. 3 Minnesota, with No. 5 Wisconsin, No. 7 Penn State, No. 8 Nebraska, No. 13 Purdue and No. 14 Michigan also making appearances in the rankings. 

Along with their conference foes, the Illini have faced four other opponents in the top-25 or are receiving votes, including No. 9 Creighton, No. T-25 Northern Iowa, Washington (RV) and Colorado (RV).

O'BRIEN & POULTER COLLECT B1G WEEKLY HONORS

Following another strong week that saw the Illini earn a pair of wins with a 3-0 sweep of Maryland and a 3-1 victory at No. 9 Nebraska, sophomore Morgan O'Brien was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week and senior Jordyn Poulter collected her second-straight Co-Setter of the Week accolade, the conference announced on Monday (October 29).

O'Brien nabs her first weekly conference honor of her career, while this is Poulter's fifth setter of the week accolade of the season and eighth of her career. As a team, the Illini have taken home eight Big Ten weekly honors in 2018.  

The sophomore libero totaled 44 digs in just seven sets for an impressive 6.29 digs per set average as opponents were held to a .083 hitting percentage, while also adding seven assists and two service aces in the two wins – including the first Illini victory over the Huskers since 2014. 

Poulter registered 88 assists for a 12.57 assists per set average as the Illini hit .240 on the week, while adding 25 digs for a 3.57 digs per set mark, eight blocks and seven kills on a .250 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.

QUADE PACING ILLINI OFFENSE

Junior Jacqueline Quade has paced the Illini offense with 359 kills on the season for a 4.27 kills per set average on a .257 hitting percentage. 

Quade leads the Big Ten and ranks 28th in the nation in kills per set, while her kill total sits third in the league and 43rd in the NCAA. 

Along with leading in kills, Quade also ranks second in the conference with a 4.82 points per set mark, which also ranks 24th in the country. She has registered 404.5 total points on the season, good enough for third in the Big Ten and 40th in the nation.

POULTER TOPS IN ASSISTS 

Senior Jordyn Poulter ranks second the Big Ten and is seventh in the NCAA with 11.77 assists per set. She owns 989 helpers on the season to sit second in the conference and rank 31st in the country. 

In conference action, Poulter ranks second with a 12.04 assists per set mark and has totaled 542 helpers.

With 4,624 total career assists, Poulter sits third in the NCAA active career leaders list.  

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 683 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 625 block assists. 

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 4,624 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.  

AVCA TOP 25 WINS

With the win over No. 9 Nebraska last Saturday, the Illini have now registered eight wins against AVCA Top 25 teams, including a trio of Top-10 wins with the Huskers, 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, No. 16 Purdue and No. 13 Michigan.