CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – For the first time since the 2011 season, the No. 3 Illinois volleyball team is headed to the NCAA Volleyball Elite Eight after earning a 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-16) sweep of No. 14 seed Marquette in front of over 3,330 raucous Illini fans on Friday (December 7) afternoon in Huff Hall.
With the win, the Illini push their win streak to 16 matches and improve their overall record to 31-3.
The Illini will now face a familiar foe in Saturday's (December 8) Regional Final as UI and No. 6 seeded Wisconsin battle at 3 p.m. CT in Huff Hall for the chance to the 2018 NCAA Volleyball Final Four in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 13 and 15. Saturday's Regional Final is sold out.
Junior Jacqueline Quade paced the Illini with a team-high 12 kills on a .267 hitting percentage, with classmate Ashlyn Fleming joining her in double figures with 10 kills on a .467 attack clip. Senior Ali Bastianelli and redshirt-junior Beth Prince each added seven kills in the win.
As a team, the Illini posted a .354 hitting percentage with senior Jordyn Poulter posting 38 assists to go along with six digs.
Defensively, freshman Taylor Kuper led the Illini with a team-high 12 digs, with sophomore Morgan O'Brien also turning in eight digs and Bastianelli registering a team-high three blocks on the day.
The Illini opened the match with an 8-2 advantage after scoring seven-straight points, but the Golden Eages (28-7) closed within a point at 14-13 midway through the first. Leading by two at 19-17, the Illini strung together four-straight points – including back-to-back Quade kills and third by sophomore Megan Cooney to push its edge back to six at 23-17, before a Bastianelli kill finished off the first, 25-19.
In a back-and-forth second period that saw seven ties and two lead changes, neither team grabbed more than a three-point advantage until a MU service error gave the Illini an 11-7 lead. The Golden Eagles continued to battle as the visitors closed within one on several occasions before knotting things 19-19 on back-to-back scores. A pair of kills from Fleming and Poulter broke a 20-20 tie for the 22-20 edge, before UI sealed the second with three-straight points for the 25-21 win and the 2-0 advantage in the match.
Leading early at 6-4 in the third, the Illini put together four-straight points for the 10-4 lead following a Fleming kill. The Illini continued to lead midway through with third as another 4-0 run pushed the advantage to 21-12. The two teams then traded points before Bastianelli sent the Illini to the Elite Eight with a kill and a 25-16 set victory.
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