EVANSTON, Ill. – The No. 24 Illinois volleyball team suffered a 3-1 (18-25, 25-20, 18-25, 20-25) setback to Northwestern in the regular season finale on Saturday (November 30) night in Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The Illini conclude the 2019 regular season with a 16-13 overall record and an 11-9 mark in the Big Ten Conference, and will await their postseason fate until Sunday evening's NCAA Selection Show on ESPNU at 7:30 p.m. CT.
Senior Jacqueline Quade led the Illini with her second-straight double-double and 23rd of her career with a team-high 18 kills to go along with 12 digs and two blocks. Joining her in double figures was classmate Ashlyn Fleming with 10 kills on a .471 hitting percentage, two stuffs and two service aces.
Redshirt-freshman Diana Brown handed out 43 assists on the night as the Illini hit at a .232 attack clip.
Defensively, junior Morgan O'Brien led all players with 17 digs, with sophomore Taylor Kuper turning in 10 digs and freshman Kennedy Collins also notching a pair of blocks on the night.
After the Wildcats opened the match with a 6-2 start, the Illini came back to tie things at 7-7 on a Fleming kill. From there it was a back-and-forth set until the home team broke a 15-15 score with three-straight points for the 18-15 edge. The Illini cut the deficit to two at 20-18, but NU finished off the first with five-straight points for the 25-18 set win.
In a point-for-point second set and with the visitors training at 16-15, the Illini put together a 10-4 run to pull ahead and knot the match at 1-1 with a 25-20 victory in the second. From there, the Wildcats took the next two sets, 25-18 and 25-20 to win the match, 3-1.
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