UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 17 Illinois volleyball team opened a two-set lead, before falling in a five-set thriller (25-18, 26-24, 15-25, 28-30, 13-15) against No. 8 Penn State on Wednesday (October 23) night in Rec Hall.
The Illini (9-9, 4-5 B1G) were led by senior Jacqueline Quade with her sixth double-double of the season with a match-high 18 kills and 15 digs, while junior Megan Cooney turned in 13 kills, redshirt-senior Beth Prince totaled 11 kills on a .364 hitting percentage and senior Ashlyn Fleming added 10 kills.
Redshirt-freshman Diana Brown registered her team-leading 12th double-double of the season with 48 assists and a team-high 16 digs, while guiding the Illini to a .211 team attack clip.
Reaching her first-career double-double was junior Morgan O'Brien, who posted 14 digs and a career-high 10 assists, with sophomore Taylor Kuper also contributed 10 digs in the match.
Fleming led UI at the net with five blocks, while freshman Kennedy Collins added four stuffs on the night.
The Illini came out firing on all cylinders with a 25-18 victory in the opening set, before fighting back from an 18-13 deficit in the second to go ahead 2-0 in the match with a 26-24 set two win. After the Nittany Lions (15-3, 8-1 B1G) evened things up by taking the next two sets – including fighting off four Illini match points in the fourth – to force a fifth, the two teams battled back-and-forth in the final, decisive set. With the match tied at 12-12, PSU scored back-to-back points to set up match point at 14-12, but the Illini would fight off one, before a Nittany Lion kill sent the home team to victory, 15-13.
Following a three-match road swing, the Illini return to Huff Hall on Saturday (October 26), hosting Ohio State on Pink Night at 5 p.m. CT.
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