UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – For the second-straight year, the Illinois volleyball team took No. 9 Penn State the distance in Rec Hall before falling in the fifth and final set, 3-2 (16-25, 29-27, 28-26, 15-25, 8-15) on Saturday (Feb. 6) night.
Senior Megan Cooney followed up her impressive performance on Friday night with another career night, registering her first-career double-double with a team-high 16 kills and a career-high 12 digs, while freshman Raina Terry joined her in double digits with a career-high 13 kills and three aces. Sophomore Kennedy Collins equaled her career-high as well with eight kills on a .471 hitting percentage.
Three Illini reached double figures in assists with sophomore Diana Brown posting her second-straight double-double and third of the year with 24 assists and 10 digs, while senior Kylie Bruder passed out 19 helpers. Junior Taylor Kuper posted her first-career double-double with a career-high 10 assists and a team-high 14 digs on the night.
Sophomore Rylee Hinton had another strong outing defensively, as she led the Illini (2-4) with seven blocks, with Terry, sophomore Kennedy Collins and redshirt-sophomore Bruna Vrankovic each adding three stuffs in the match.
After dropping the opening set, the Illini battled back to take a 2-1 advantage with set wins of 29-27 and 28-26. From there, the Nittany Lions (2-0) forced a decision fifth set with a 25-15 win in the fourth.
Senior Emily Hollowell opened the scoring for the Illini in the fifth, but PSU came back with six-unanswered scores for an 8-2 advantage. A Terry kill closed the deficit to 9-6, but the home team converted back-to-back kills to stall the Illini comeback. From there, the two teams traded points until an ace sent PSU to the 15-8 win in the fifth.
Next Up
Following the postponement of both matches against Northwestern next week, the Illini will next be in action when they host Ohio State on Feb. 19-20 in Huff Hall.
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