PROVO, Utah – In hard-fought five-set battle in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Championship, the Illinois volleyball team battled until the end, before falling to Utah, 3-2 (23-25, 26-24, 27-25, 23-25, 10-15) in Smith Fieldhouse on the campus of BYU on Friday (December 6) night.
The Illini finish the season with a 16-14 overall record and an 11-9 mark in the Big Ten Conference, while advancing to their third-straight NCAA Tournament under head coach Chris Tamas.
Senior Jacqueline Quade wraps her outstanding career with a team-high 23 kills on a .298 hitting percentage and two service aces, while junior Megan Cooney posted 15 kills to go along with a team-high six blocks on the night. Senior Ashlyn Fleming joined the duo in double figures with 12 kills on a .333 attack clip, while also adding five blocks and two aces.
Redshirt-freshman Diana Brown registered her team-leading 14th double-double with 53 assists, a team-high 11 digs, and three blocks.
Defensively, junior Morgan O'Brien also turned in 11 digs and two aces, with freshman Kennedy Collins also totaling five blocks in the match.
After the Utes (23-9) took the opening set after a strong back-and-forth battle, the Illini came back to take a 2-1 edge in the match with set wins of 26-24 and 27-25 in the third and fourth frames, respectively. Another 25-23 set victory for Utah then pushed the content to a fifth and final decisive set. With the score tied at 5-5 after a Quade kill, the Utes strung together three-straight point for an 8-5 advantage. The Illini pulled within on one on two occasions, but another 3-0 run put the home team ahead at 14-9. Another Quade kill fought off the first match point, but Utah then finished off the five-set win with a kill.
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