COLUMBUS, Ohio. – The No. 25 Illinois volleyball team finished up a successful two-match road trip with a 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-14, 25-16) win over Ohio State in the Covelli Center on Sunday (November 24).
The Illini (15-12, 10-8 B1G) were paced by senior Jacqueline Quade with a match-high 16 kills, while classmate Ashlyn Fleming turned in 12 kills on a .360 hitting percentage to go along with a match-high seven blocks. Junior Megan Cooney added 11 kills in the win.
Redshirt-freshman and Columbus native Diana Brown registered 48 assists and eight digs, while guiding the Illini to a .250 team attack percentage.
The Illini continued its strong play at the service line with 10 aces as senior Caroline Welsh led the team with three aces.
Defensively, junior Morgan O'Brien led all players and came within one dig of a season-high with 24 digs, with sophomore Taylor Kuper joining her in double figures with 10 digs on the day.
The two teams traded points for the first half of the opening set as a Quade kill made it 16-15 in favor of the visitors, but OSU would string together five-straight points for the 20-16 advantage. Back-to-back Cooney kills cut the edge to 21-18, before OSU went on for the 25-21 set one win.
The Illini scored the first three points of the second set en route to building an 8-1 lead on the strength of the serve of O'Brien and sophomore Taylor Kuper. Illinois continued to lead at 16-9 following back-to-back kills from sophomore Mica Allison, but the Buckeyes battled back with a 7-1 run to pull within 18-17 before tying the score at 20-20. Following an OSU kill to put the home team ahead 23-22, the Illini tied the match at 1-1 with three-straight points – including back-to-back Allison kills – to take the second, 25-23.
Continuing their momentum from the second, the Illini built a 14-6 advantage after a 10-3 start in the third. UI then pushed its lead to 22-13 on a Quade ace, before finishing off the set with three-straight scores on a pair of Quade kills and a Cooney strike for the 25-14 victory.
In a closer start to the fourth and with OSU leading at 13-11, the Illini scored six-unanswered points on the Welsh serve to take a 17-13 edge. The Buckeyes pulled within two at 17-15, but that would be as close as they would get with the Illini finishing off the set and match with an 8-1 run.
The Illini will next wrap up the 2019 regular season with back-to-back meetings with Northwestern, first hosting the Wildcats on Wednesday (November 27) on Senior Night in a BTN televised match at 7:30 p.m. CT, before heading to Evanston, Ill., for a Saturday (November 30) match-up at 7 p.m. CT in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
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