COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 4 Illinois volleyball team turned in a strong offensive outing en route to its sixth-straight win with a 3-1 (25-17, 18-25, 25-11, 25-19) victory over Ohio State in St. John Arena on Friday (November 2) night.
The Illini (21-3, 10-3 B1G) had a trio of players reach double-digit kills, led by 13 from junior Jacqueline Quade, as well as 12 kill on a .526 hitting percentage from senior Ali Bastianelli and 11 kills on a .320 attack clip from redshirt-junior Beth Prince.
As a team, the Illini registered a .350 hitting percentage as senior Jordyn Poulter handed out 40 assists to go with nine digs, three kills on a .500 attack clip and two blocks.
Defensively, UI was led by sophomore Morgan O'Brien with 20 digs – marking her second-straight outing with 20 or more digs – and four blocks from junior Ashlyn Fleming.
After a Buckeye error gave the Illini an early 8-5 advantage, the home team pulled within one on three occasions until UI grabbed some breathing room on a mini 4-1 run - capped by an O'Brien ace - for the 14-10 lead. UI continued to lead at 16-12 on a Cooney and Fleming block, but back-to-back OSU (12-13, 3-10 B1G) points closed the edge to two at 16-14. The Illini then used a 9-3 run to close out the opening set – including five-straight points to finish the first – as Quade served out a 25-17 win.
The Buckeyes jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the second, but the Illini came back to knot things at 6-6 on an OSU hitting error. With the Illini within one at 11-10, the Buckeyes used a 7-2 run, including five-straight points to start the rally, to take an 18-12 advantage. The visitors closed within 19-16 on a block from Poulter and Fleming, but three-unanswered OSU points turned into a 6-2 run as the Buckeyes tied up the match with a 25-18 set two victory.
The Illini bounced back with a strong third set as a service ace from freshman Taylor Kuper gave the visitors an early 4-1 edge, before three-straight O'Brien aces pushed the lead to 9-4. A 5-1 run then gave UI a 14-6 lead following a Quade kill as the Illini took control with another 5-2 run for the 21-9 advantage following a Poulter kill. From there, UI sailed to the 25-11 set win and the 2-1 edge in the match.
It was another quick start in the fourth as a Fleming kill put the visitors up ay 8-4, before an ace from the San Jose, California native gave the Illini a 11-7 edge midway through the period. After an Illini service error made it 12-9, the Orange and Blue scored nine of the next 10 points to take a 18-13 advantage on a solo stuff from Fleming. Five-unanswered points from UI – including four on the serve of sophomore Kylie Bruder – pushed the lead to 23-15, before a Quade kill set up match point at 24-17. The Buckeyes fought off two match points, but sailed a serve long on the third for the 25-19 fourth set win and 3-1 victory for the Illini.
Illinois wraps its three-match road swing on Sunday (November 4) as UI takes on Maryland at 12 p.m. CT in College Park, Maryland.
For more Fighting Illini volleyball news, stay tuned to FightingIllini.com and follow @IlliniVBall on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook.
