MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The No. 17 Illinois volleyball team fell in a 3-1 (16-25, 22-25, 25-22, 23-25) setback to No. 7 Minnesota on Saturday (October 19) night, falling just short from pushing the match to a decisive fifth set in Maturi Pavilion.
The Illini (9-8, 4-4 B1G) had three players reach double figures in kills, with junior Megan Cooney leading the way with 16, while senior Jacqueline Quade had 14 kills and classmate Ashlyn Fleming totaled 12 on a .321 hitting percentage.
Redshirt-freshman Diana Brown earned her second-straight and team-leading 11th double-double of the season with 50 assists and 14 digs, while three other Illini joined her in double digit digs, paced by junior Morgan O'Brien's second-consecutive 25-dig outing to go along with sophomore Taylor Kuper and Caroline Welsh with 12 and 10 digs, respectively.
Freshman Kennedy Collins was dominant at the net with a career-best 10 blocks as the Illini out-stuffed the Gophers (13-3, 7-1 B1G), 12 to nine, with Brown and Cooney each adding three on the night.
The Gophers opened the match by scoring the first six points of the night en route to taking the first set, 25-16, before dropping a back-and-forth second set after the home team broke a 22-22 with three-straight scores for the 25-22 win.
The Illini answered back in the third with a reverse finish from the second as UI trailed at 22-20, before taking the set with five-unanswered points – capped by a kill from redshirt-senior Beth Prince. Minnesota responded in the fourth to build a 18-10 lead, but the Illini fought back using a 9-3 run to close within two at 21-19. Back-to-back UM kills then pushed the deficit back to 24-20, with the Illini fighting off three match points, before the Gophers took the set, 25-23, and the match, 3-1.
The Illini wrap up their three-match road swing on Wednesday (October 23) with a 7 p.m. CT match against No. 8 Penn State in Rec Hall in University Park, Pa.
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