FIRST SERVE | WEEK TWO
The Illinois volleyball team opens its 2020-21 spring season home schedule this weekend as the Illini host No. 1 Wisconsin in Huff Hall.Â
UI and the Badgers start the two-match series with a 3 p.m. CT contest on Friday (Jan. 29), followed by a 11 a.m. CT match on Saturday (Jan. 30). Friday's match will be streamed on Big Ten Network+ (subscription needed), with Saturday's contest airing on Big Ten Network. Fans can listen to both matches on the radio on WDWS 1400 in Champaign and online at FightingIllini.com.Â
ILLINOIS VS. THE FIELD
The Illini lead the series with the Badgers, 49-40-1 and own a 23-17 mark in Huff Hall.
Illinois has won two of the last three meetings, but dropped a five-set thriller (12-25, 25-18, 25-23, 21-25, 4-15) in last season's only meeting on October 18, 2019 in Madison, Wis.Â
Former Illini Jacqueline Quade led with a match-high 19 kills and team-high three blocks, while senior Megan Cooney joined her in double figures with 14 kills and sophomore Kennedy Collins adding nine kills on a .538 hitting percentage.
Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown registered her 10th double-double of the season with 48 assists and 13 digs on the night.
ILLINI SWEEP IOWA TO OPEN 2020-21 SEASON
With back-to-back 3-1 road wins over Iowa last weekend, Illinois opened the 2020-21 spring season with a 2-0 record.Â
The Illini opened their season with a win for the eighth-straight year after kicking off the 2020-21 spring season with a 25-20, 23-25, 25-15, 25-23 victory over Iowa on Friday (Jan. 22) afternoon in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, with senior Megan Cooney leading 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. Â
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. 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.Â
UI then capped an undefeated weekend with a 25-20, 25-13, 19-25, 25-13 win over the Hawkeyes on Saturday (Jan. 23) with redshirt-freshman Ellie Holzman turning in a match-high 15 kills on a .355 hitting percentage, with senior Megan Cooney adding her second-straight double-digit outing with 13 kills to go along with eight digs, four blocks and a team-high three aces.
Sophomore Rylee Hinton and Kennedy Collins dominated at the net with Hinton equaling her career-high with eight blocks and Collins registering five stuffs. Junior Taylor Kuper added a match-high 19 digs, while tallying a team-high three aces. As a whole, the Illini defense held the Hawkeyes (0-2) to a .097 hitting percentage on the weekend.Â
HINTON NAMED B1G DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
After a dominating performance at the net during the opening weekend of the 2020-21 spring season, sophomore Rylee Hinton was named Big Ten Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week, the conference announced on Monday (Jan. 25).
This marks the first weekly conference honor Illinois volleyball has received this season and the first-career honor for Hinton.
Hinton helped lead the Illini to a 2-0 start to the season after back-to-back 3-1 road wins over Iowa last weekend. The middle blocker led all players in the Big Ten with 16 blocks in the two matches for a 2.00 blocks per set average and added 12 kills as the Illini held the Hawkeyes to a .097 hitting percentage in the series. Â
The Champaign, Ill., native opened her season by equaling her career-high with eight blocks in both matches, while adding seven kills on Friday afternoon and five kills on a .400 hitting percentage in Saturday's match.
WEEKEND STANDOUTS
Senior Megan Cooney led the team with 30 kills for a .375 kills per set average on a .269 hitting percentage, while also totaling 17 digs – second-most behind libero Taylor Kuper – as well as seven blocks and six aces.
In her first-career collegiate action redshirt-freshman Ellie Holzman totaled 27 kills – second-most on the team – for a 3.38 kills per set mark on a .258 hitting percentage to go along with 11 digs, three blocks and two service aces. In her first competitive match in two years due to injury, the New Orleans, La., native registered 12 kills and added seven digs, two blocks and two aces.
ILLINI IN NCAA & B1G RANKINGS
• Illinois leads the nation in aces per set (3.00).
• Illinois is sixth in the nation and leads the Big Ten in blocks per set (3/25)
• Illinois is eighth in the nation and second in the Big Ten in opponent hitting percentage (.097).
• Illinois leads the conference in service aces (24).
• Illinois is second in the Big Ten in blocks (26.0).
• Illinois is third in the Big Ten in digs (107), kills (104) and attacks (261).Â
• Sophomore Rylee Hinton leads the Big Ten with 2.00 blocks per set and is second with 16 total blocks.Â
• Junior Taylor Kuper leads the league in both aces (7, 0.88 aces/s) and digs (39, 4.88).
• Seniors Megan Cooney (4th, 6, 0.75 aces/s) and Kylie Bruder (7th, 5, 0.63 aces/s) join Kuper in the top 10 in the league in aces.Â
• Cooney also leads the Big Ten in points (40.0), is second in kills (30), third in points per set (5.00) and fifth in kills per set (3.75).
WELCOME TO THE 2020-21 VOLLEYBALL SEASON
The 2020-21 season marks the 47th season of Illinois volleyball, with the Illini holding an overall record of 1,007-572-7 (.637) and a mark of 451-278 (.619) in the Big Ten.Â
The Big Ten Conference will play a league-only schedule for the 2020-21 spring season that will run 11 weeks with two matches each week against the same opponent for a total of 22 regular-season contests. Each school wih have five two-match home series, five two-match road series and one split week with its travel partner. There will be no regular season non-conference matches and the Illini will not face Michigan or Rutgers during the season. Â
PANDEMIC TIMELINE
• March 13 » Big Ten suspends all athletic activities.
• June 29 » Members of the Illinois team begin returning to campus for voluntary workouts.
• July 9 » Big Ten announces conference-only schedules for fall sports.
• Aug. 7 » Illinois begins volleyball practice.
• Aug. 11 » Big Ten presidents and chancellors postpone all fall sports.
• Sept. 22 » NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved plan to hold 2020 fall championships in spring of 2021 and announces first competition date for volleyball as Jan. 22.
• Dec. 30 » Big Ten announces the 2020-21 volleyball schedule.
• Jan. 22 » Illinois at Iowa - 413 days after the Illini played in its last match in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Utah on December, 6, 2019.
ROSTER RUNDOWN
The Illini return 12 members from the 2019 squad, including All-Big Ten Freshman Team honoree Diana Brown, senior Megan Cooney and defensive specialist Taylor Kuper.
Seniors Kylie Bruder and Emily Hollowell, junior Mica Allison, redshirt-sophomore Bruna Vrankovic and sophomores Kennedy Collins, Rylee Hinton, Kyla Swanson and Alyssa Eske complete the returning roster.
Redshirt-freshman Ellie Holzman - who was with the Illini in 2019, but redshirted the season - will join three other freshmen Maddie Whittington, Raina Terry and Sophie Gregus for the 2020-21 campaign.
BIG TEN NETWORK RELEASES VOLLEYBALL BROADCAST SCHEDULE
Big Ten Network announced its 2020-21 volleyball broadcast schedule on January 19, with Illinois appearing nationally on the network for five matches this spring.
All matches televised on Big Ten Network will also be streamed on FoxSports.com and the FoxSports app. All remaining home matches will be streamed on BTNPlus.com (subscription necessary), with remaining road matches announced at a later date.
» Friday, February 5 at Penn State (8 p.m. CT)
» Saturday, February 6 at Penn State (5:30 p.m. CT)
» Tuesday, February 9 vs. Northwestern (7 p.m. CT)
» Friday, March 5 vs. Nebraska (TBD)
» Friday, March 26 vs. Indiana (TBD)
2019 IN REVIEW
Illinois advanced to its third-straight NCAA Tournament appearance under head coach Chris Tamas in 2019, wrapping up the year with a 16-14 overall record and a seventh place finish in the Big Ten Conference with a 11-9 mark.
The Illini made its 26th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, falling to Utah in a hard-fought five-set battle (23-25, 26-24, 27-25, 23-25, 10-15) in Smith Fieldhouse on the campus of BYU on December 6, 2019.
Big Ten All-Freshman Team honoree Diana Brown returns for her second season as the Illini setter after she started all 30 matches on the season, playing in all 118 sets - only one of three players to do both on the team. Brown totaled 1,294 assists for a 10.97 assists per set mark to rank fourth in the Big Ten while leading the Illini to a .231 team hitting percentage.
She also ranked second on the team with 275 digs and third on the team with 59 blocks, while adding 55 kills and 18 service aces.
Senior outside hitter Megan Cooney also returns after ranking second on the team with 347 kills on a .212 hitting percentage, to go along with 55.0 total blocks, including ranking second on the team with nine solo blocks, and also adding 50 digs.
Another offensive thread Brown will look to go to is sophomore Kennedy Collins, who ranked fourth on the team with 129 kills on a .235 attack clip and was second on the roster with 80 total blocks, while also adding 17 digs in her rookie campaign in 2019.
Junior Taylor Kuper looks to lead the Illini defensively after playing in all 30 matches in 2019 and ranking fourth on the team with 249 digs and second on the roster with 37 service aces, while adding 27 assists.
HEAD COACH CHRIS TAMAS STARTS FOURTHÂ SEASON AT THE HELM
Chris Tamas is entering his fourth season as head coach of the Fighting Illini volleyball program in 2020-21 after being named to the position in February 2017. Tamas (pronounced Thomas) is the eighth head coach in Illinois history.
In his first four seasons at the helm of the program, Tamas has made an immediate impact on Illinois volleyball and owns an overall record of 73-29 (.716), including a 42-20 (.677) mark in the nation's toughest volleyball league, the Big Ten Conference, as well as three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.Â
Illinois experienced one of its most successful seasons ever in 2018 under Tamas, who was named American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Northeast Region Coach of the Year. The Illini made the program's fourth-ever appearance in the NCAA National Semifinals as the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament – riding a 17-match win streak into the Final Four - and ended the season ranked No. 3 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Coaches Poll. The team registered a 32-4 overall record and finished in second place in the Big Ten Conference with a 17-3 mark, with the 32 victories ranking tied for fourth-most wins in school history.
