CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – For the fourth time in the last five matches the Illinois volleyball team went to a fifth set as the Illini dropped a tough 3-2 (26-28, 25-16, 25-22, 20-25, 12-15) decision to No. 6 Purdue on Wednesday (Oct. 6) night in Huff Hall.
Graduate student Megan Cooney led the Illini (11-5, 3-2 B1G) for the third-straight match as she registered her second-straight double-double with a match-high 18 kills to go along with 11 digs and two service aces. Junior Kennedy Collins and sophomore Raina Terry each added 13 kills on the night, with Collins also posting three blocks and Terry notching a pair of aces in the match.
Redshirt-junior Diana Brown tallied her 31st double-double of her career with 50 assists and 13 digs, while also notching three blocks and two aces.
Defensively, senior Taylor Kuper had her 13th-career 20-dig match with 26 in the contest, with freshman Caroline Barnes turning in a career-high 11 digs for the Illini.
Neither team gave much in an opening set that saw 19 ties and nine lead changes as the two teams exchanged points until a UI attack error broke a 23-23 tie to give the Boilermakers (12-2, 4-1 B1G) set point at 24-23. The Illini fought it off before an ace from Jessice Nunge gave the home team their own set point at 25-24. Purdue responded with back-to-back scores for its second set point at 26-25, but a service error again knotted the score at 26-26. The Boilermakers then took the opener, 28-26, on back-to-back points.
The Illini answered back quickly in the second by scoring the first five points of the stanza en route to a 11-6 advantage. Purdue closed with 13-9, but a 7-4 run Illini put pushed the lead to 20-13, capped by a Collins and Nunge block. The two teams then traded scores before back-to-back Boilermaker attach errors tied up the match with the 25-16 UI set win.
It was a tight start to the third until the Illini broke a 7-7 tie with seven unanswered points to build a 14-7 edge, but Purdue responded right back with its own 7-0 run to knot the score at 14-14. The Illini took a 20-16 advantage with four-straight scores ending with a Collins and Brown stuff, but the visitors used a 4-1 run to close within one at 21-20. After a Purdue service error, an Illini hitting error cut the lead to one again, but it would be as close as the Boilermakers would get as a Terry kill sealed the 25-22 set three score.
The Illini held a slim two-point advantage throughout the early goings of the fourth until Purdue went on a 5-0 run to take a 15-11 lead. UI cut the deficit to three on two occasions, but a Boilermaker kill pushed the score back to 20-14. It went back and forth from there until a Purdue kill sent the match into the decisive fifth set with a 25-20 set four win for the visitors.
Purdue jumped out with a quick 7-3 advantage in the fifth, but back-to-back points on a Collins kill and a PU error cut the deficit to two. The Boilermakers then used a 3-1 mini run to grab a 10-6 advantage, but the Illini answered back with a 4-1 run of their own to pull within one at 11-10. After a Cooney kill again pulled UI within a point at 12-11, the visitors converted on back-to-back scores to earn match point at 14-11. The Illini fought off one match point, before a Boilermaker kill finished off the set, 15-12, and the match, 3-2.
Illinois next heads on the road to take on No. 4 Wisconsin in Madison, Wis., on Saturday (Oct. 9) in a Big Ten Network-televised match at 7 p.m. CT.
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