CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Freshman Raina Terry turned in her first career double-double, but it was not enough as the Illinois volleyball team dropped a 3-1 (17-25, 26-24, 17-25, 22-25) match to Ohio State on Friday (Feb. 19) night in Huff Hall.
Terry registered career-highs of 14 kills and 11 digs to lead the Illini (2-5) against the Buckeyes (8-0), with senior Megan Cooney joining her in double digits with 10 kills and sophomore Kennedy Collins equaling a career-high with nine kills on a .333 hitting percentage.
Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown and senior Kylie Bruder combined to run the offense, with Brown handing out 19 assists and Bruder tallying 15 helpers.
Defensively, sophomore Rylee Hinton led all players with five blocks, with Cooney and Collins adding three stuffs each. Junior Taylor Kuper came within two digs of a career-high with a season-high 23 digs to go along with three service aces on the night.
After a tight start to the match, the Buckeyes broke away at 15-11 following an 8-4 run and continued to hold a four-point advantage before pushing it to five at 20-15. An OSU attack error closed the deficit to 21-17, but the Buckeyes finished off the opening set with four-straight points for the 25-17 win.
It was a back-and-forth second set until OSU sprinted ahead at 16-11, but the Illini fought back with a 4-1 run capped by back-to-back Cooney kills to close within 17-15. After back-to-back errors stalled the Illini rally, the Buckeyes jumped back out at 20-16. UI continued to battle, putting together a 5-2 run to pull within one at 22-21 on a Brown service ace. OSU answered with back-to-back scores to set up set point at 24-21, but the Illini rallied with five-straight points to even the match at 1-1 with a 26-24 set two victory.
The Buckeyes again broke open a close start with four unanswered scores midway through the third en route to a 9-2 run for a 19-12 advantage. The two teams traded points from there as OSU took the period, 25-17.
OSU jumped out quickly in the fourth with a 4-1 lead following an ace, but the Illini came back to tie things up at 13-13 on Terry kill. Five-straight OSU points then gave the visitors an 18-13 edge, before back-to-back Terry kills closed the gap to 19-16. OSU then used three-straight scores to stop the Illini momentum as they would go on to take the fourth, 25-17 and seal the match win.
Next Up
The Illini and Ohio State meet for the second match of their two-match series on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT in Huff Hall.
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