WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – For the sixth-straight season, the No. 8 Illinois volleyball team opened its Big Ten Conference campaign with a win as the Illini took down No. 16 Purdue, 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-23, 26-24), on the road in Holloway Gym on Friday (September 21).
The Illini, who improve to 12-0 and 1-0 in the conference, gave the Boilermakers (11-1, 0-1) their first loss of the 2018 season while securing their fifth top-25 win of the season.
Redshirt-junior Beth Prince led a contingent of four Illini with double-digit kills after turning in a team-high 19 kills on a .279 hitting percentage, while sophomore Megan Cooney tallied 12 kills and senior Ali Bastianelli and junior Jacqueline Quade each posted 11 kills in the win.
Bastianelli and Quade led the Illini at the service line with five and four aces, respectively, as UI as a team served up 12 aces on the night.
Senior Jordyn Poulter led the offense with 52 assists, to go along with seven digs, five kills on a .300 hitting percentage and three blocks, with the team hitting at a .210 attack clip.
Defensively, Bastianelli added a match-high six blocks, while sophomore Morgan O'Brien registered her third-career 20-dig match and second of the season with a team-high 20 digs. Freshman Taylor Kuper added a season-high 10 digs in the win.
It was a side-out start to the match with five ties in the beginning of the opening set before the Boilermakers broke a 6-6 tie with five of the next six points for an 11-7 lead. The Illini responded with their own 5-2 run to take a 13-12 edge on the serve of Poulter, before four-straight points on the serve of Quade – capped by back-to-back aces – gave the visitors a 19-15 advantage. PU drew within 21-18, but UI finished off the first by scoring the final four of five points as a Prince kill put the Illini ahead with a 25-19 set win.
The Boilers started fast in the second with the set's first four points and then pushed their lead to 10-3 following three-straight scores. The Illini closed within two on three occasions, before back-to-back kills from Bastianelli and Quade knotted things at 18-18. Purdue answered back with three-straight points to retake a 21-18 advantage, but again UI fought back to within 21-20 on a Prince attack. From there, the Boilermakers strung together a pair of points for a 23-20 advantage and after the Illini fought off two set points, tied up the match with a 25-23 set score.
Purdue jumped out to an early 9-3 edge in the third, but the Illini battled back with an 8-2 run – including a pair of aces – to tie things up at 11-11, before using another 7-1 scoring spree to build their biggest advantage at 20-14 capped by a Quade ace. Purdue then rattled off five-straight points en route to an 8-1 run to pull ahead at 22-21, but Prince answered back with all of the Illini's final four points – including three-straight kills to set up set point – before wrapping up the 25-23 victory.
Following an early 6-6 tie, the Boilermakers used a 7-1 run to take a 13-7 edge in the fourth. With the home team continuing to lead at 17-11, the Illini fought back to tie the score at 20-20 on a 9-3 run capped by five-straight points on the Kuper serve. The teams traded points before a Bastianelli and Poulter block gave the Illini their first match point at 24-23, but Purdue fought it off with a block to even the score. Bastianelli again put the Illini in position to finish of the match in four set on a kill, before Prince sealed the win. The Avon, Indiana native's kill was originally called out, but the call was reversed after a challenge from head coach Chris Tamas – ending the match in favor of the Illini.
Illinois continues its Big Ten Conference-opening road swing in Bloomington, Ind., on Sunday (September 23) when the Illini take on Indiana at 12 p.m. CT in University Gym.
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