MADISON, Wis. – The Illinois volleyball team won the opening set of the match, before falling 3-1 (27-25, 20-25, 9-25, 15-25) to No. 4 Wisconsin on Saturday (Oct. 9) night at the UW Field House.
Sophomore Raina Terry paced the Illini (11-6, 3-3 B1G) with her 10th career double-double and fourth of the season with 13 kills and 11 digs to go along with three blocks and a pair of aces, while junior Jessica Nunge adding 10 kills on the night.
Redshirt-junior Diana Brown registered her 32nd career double-double and her team-leading eight of the season with 22 assists, 11 digs and four blocks.
Defensively, senior Taylor Kuper turned in a team-high 12 digs, while graduate student Megan Cooney notched 10 digs in the match. As a team, the Illini was just one block off their season-high with 12 stuffs against the Badgers (13-1, 5-1 B1G), with junior Kennedy Collins leading the way with six blocks and classmate Kyla Swanson adding five on the night.
The Badgers took an early 6-4 edge in the opening set, but the Illini pulled ahead at 8-7 following a 4-1 run, capped by a Swanson kill. Wisconsin then responded with six-straight points to start an 8-1 run to take a 15-9 advantage midway through the stanza. Back-to-back Illini points stalled the rally, but the Badgers came back with back-to-back scores of their own for the 17-11 lead. After the Illini pulled within 18-14 on a Collins and Cooney block, the Badgers scored the next three of four points for a 21-15 advantage, but the visitors responded with a 7-1 run that included three Illini blocks to come all the way back for the 22-22 tie. From there, the two teams traded scores with the Illini fighting off two Wisconsin set points to take the first, 27-25 on a Cooney ace as Illinois ended the set on a 12-4 run.
Wisconsin scored five of the first six points in the second en route to a 12-5 advantage, but a 7-1 Illini run brought the visitors to within one as a Terry ace made it 13-12. The Badgers answered back with three-unanswered scores to pull ahead at 16-12. After trading points, back-to-back Nunge kills cut the deficit to two at 17-15, with the Illini keeping within two points over the next several rallies before Nunge finished off the longest rally of the night to bring UI within 21-20. Out of a Badger timeout, the home team responded with four-straight points to take the second, 25-20 and tie the match 1-1.
It was a quick 4-1 Wisconsin lead to start the third, but three-straight Illini scores tied things up at 4-4. The Badgers responded with three-straight points of their own for a 7-4 edge, but a Brown and Collins block closed the deficit to one at 8-7. That would be as close as the Illini would get in the period as six-straight points propelled the Badgers to a 17-2 run as the home team finished off the third with six-unanswered points for the 25-9 set win.
After a 5-2 Badger start to the fourth, the Illini closed within one at 5-4, but Wisconsin responded with a 7-1 run to build a 12-5 advantage. Back-to-back UW points then pushed the home team's lead to 15-6, but a 4-1 run from the Illini closed the deficit to 16-10 on a Nunge kill. Wisconsin came right back with a 4-0 run of their own for a 20-10 lead. The two teams then traded points until a Badger kill finished off the third match point for the 25-15 set win and the 3-1 match victory.
Illinois next returns home to Huff Hall to host Iowa in a midweek match on Wednesday (October 13) at 7 p.m. CT.
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