PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Junior Kennedy Collins came within two blocks of a triple double as the Illinois volleyball team battled to a five-set (25-27, 25-20, 25-11, 22-25, 15-12) victory over Rutgers at the Rutgers Athletic Center on Friday (Oct. 29) night.
With the win – the fourth in the last five matches – the Illini improve to 15-7 and 7-4 in the Big Ten.
Collins earned her first-career double-double with 13 kills on a .440 hitting percentage to go along with a career-high 10 digs, a season-high eight blocks – including to solo stuffs – and three service aces. Sophomore Raina Terry turned in her 12th-careeer double-double and fifth of the season with 13 kills and 11 digs, while also posting four blocks and a match-high four aces. Junior Jessica Nunge added a team-high 16 kills in the win.
Redshirt-junior Diana Brown directed the Illini offense to a .215 hitting percentage as she registered her 35th career double-double and team-leading 11th of the season with 46 assists and 10 digs.
Defensively, senior Taylor Kuper came within two digs of equaling her career-high with a match-high 27 digs on the night, with graduate student Megan Cooney notching 11 digs.
As a team, the Illini served up 12 aces, with Kuper adding three aces in the win.
In a back-and-forth match, the Scarlet Knights grabbed the early 1-0 lead with a 27-25 win in an opening set that saw 14 ties and 11 lead changes, before the Illini took the next two frames, 25-20 and a dominating 25-11 third to take a 2-1 advantage in the match. In another tight stanza, the home time broke a 14-14 tie with a 5-0 run to take control of the fourth. The Illini closed within 20-19 on a Collins kill, but it would be as close as they would get as RU went on for the 25-22 win to force a decisive fifth set.
The Illini opened the fifth with back-to-back points, before Rutgers came back to tie things up at 2-2. From there, the two teams went back and forth until the Illini strung four-straight scores - highlighted by an ace from graduate student Kylie Bruder – to go ahead at 12-9. Back-to-back RU kills closed the lead to one at 12-11, but a Collins kill combined with a Terry ace set up match point at 14-12. The Scarlet Knights fought off one point, before serving into the net to send the Illini to the 15-12 set win and the 3-2 match victory.
Illinois continues its road trip with a trip to University Park, Pa., to take on No. 13 Penn State on Saturday (Oct. 30) at 3 p.m. CT.
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