IOWA CITY, Ill. – The Illinois volleyball team opened its season with a win for the eighth-straight year after kicking off the 2020-21 spring season with a 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-15, 25-23) victory over Iowa on Friday (Jan. 22) afternoon in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
Senior Megan Cooney led all players with 17 kills on a .324 hitting percentage, while also equaling a career-high with nine digs and serving up a career-best three service aces. Fellow classmate Kylie Bruder was also impressive in her season debut after registering her first career double-double with career highs of 21 assists, 10 digs and three aces. Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown also turned in 22 assists.
Redshirt-freshman Ellie Holzman joined Cooney in double figures with 12 kills, while sophomore Rylee Hinton added seven kills and a match-high eight blocks. Freshman Raina Terry added seven stuffs as the Illini (1-0) outblocked the Hawkeyes (0-1), 13.5 to 11 in the win.
Defensively, junior Taylor Kuper recorded her second-career 20-dig match with 20 digs on the night, to go along with four aces. As a team, the Illini served up 14 aces – tying for the ninth-most in program history.
In a competitive opening set, neither team jumped out to a significant lead until late in the period. With the score tied at 19-19, the Illini used a 6-1 run – including three-straight blocks from Terry, Hinton and Cooney - to finished off the first, 25-20.
After tied things up with a 25-23 set two win, the Illini came out strong in the third as a 6-1 run put UI ahead at 12-5 following a block from Cooney and sophomore Kennedy Collins. The Illini continued to hold its lead throughout the remainder of the stanza, with a Terry kill pushing the lead to double digits at 20-10, before a kill from junior Mica Allison sealed the 25-15 third set win.
In another back and forth frame, Iowa took an 18-13 advantage following a Hawkeye ace and continued to lead at 20-15 until the Illini put together a 9-2 run on the serves of Brown and Holzman to retake the lead and set up match point at 24-22. After an Iowa kill cut it to 24-23, Cooney sealed the first victory of the season with her 17th kill of the night.
The Illini continue their two-match series with the Hawkeyes on Saturday with a 12 p.m. CT match. Fans can watch at BTNPlus.com (subscription needed) as well as listen on WDWS 1400 locally in Champaign.
For more Fighting Illini volleyball news, stay tuned to FightingIllini.com and follow @IlliniVBall on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook.
