FIRST SERVE | WEEK SEVEN
After a weekend off due the postponement of the two-match road series at Michigan State, the Illinois volleyball team returns to action as it hosts No. 4 Nebraska for a pair of matches on March 5-6 in Huff Hall.
The Illini and the Huskers will open the weekend with a Big Ten Network-televised match at 8 p.m. CT on Friday night, before a 6 p.m. CT contest on Saturday, streaming on Big Ten Network+ (subscription needed). Fans can listen to both matches on the radio on WDWS 1400 in Champaign and online at FightingIllini.com.
ILLINOIS VS. THE FIELD
The Illini trail in the all-time series with Nebraska, 8-27-1 and are 5-8 in Huff Hall.
The Illini have lost two-straight in the series, with both matches going five sets, including 2019's lone meeting on Sept. 27 in Champaign.
The Illini fell just short in a five-set (22-25, 27-25, 28-26, 22-25, 10-15) thriller against No. 3 Nebraska in front of a sellout crowd of 4,152 fans on Stuff Huff Night in the two teams' last meeting.
Senior Megan Cooney led all returners with 14 kills and added a team-leading four blocks. Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown earned her sixth double-double of the season as she passed out 51 assists to go along with 11 digs and equaled a career-high with four blocks on the night.
MICHIGAN STATE MATCHES POSTPONED
Both matches between Illinois volleyball and Michigan State, scheduled for February 27-28 in East Lansing, were postponed due to COVID-19 issues within the Spartan program. The decision to postpone was mutually agreed upon out of an abundance of caution surrounding the health and safety of the participants, and the institutions will work with the Big Ten Conference to identify rescheduling options.
OHIO STATE RECAP
After a week off due to the Michigan State series being postponed, Illinois battled against undefeated Ohio State in Huff Hall, dropping a pair of matches, 3-1 (17-25, 26-24, 17-25, 22-25) on Friday (Feb. 19), before a 3-2 (22-25, 25-16, 21-25, 18-25, 11-15) setback on Saturday (Feb. 20).
Freshman Raina Terry notched back-to-back double-doubles with 14 kills and 11 digs on Friday and career-highs of 19 kills and 13 digs on Saturday. Senior Megan Cooney notched her second-career double-double in Saturday's five-setter with 15 kills and a career-high-equaling 12 digs, while sophomore Kennedy Collins added a career-best 10 kills in the match. Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown was the third Illini with her team-leading fourth double-double of the season after handing out 26 assists and tallying 13 digs in the Saturday match against the Buckeyes.
Junior libero Taylor Kuper had a pair of standout performances against OSU, registering 23 digs in both matches – coming within just two digs of a career-high.
As a team, the Illini totaled 17 service aces to the Buckeyes' four, with Kuper leading the way with six.
TERRY TEARING IT UP
A regular in the lineup all season, freshman Raina Terry has recently been tearing it up on the court and has registered three-straight double-digit kill outings and posted back-to-back double-double efforts against Ohio State.
In her last three matches, Terry has totaled a team-leading 46 kills for a 3.29 kills per set average on a .244 hitting percentage, while also adding the second-most digs on the team with 32 (2.29 digs per set) and the second-most aces with seven. She has also notched five blocks in that span.
In the Illini's most recent outing, Terry posted career-highs of 19 kills, 13 digs and three aces in a five-set setback to Ohio State on Feb. 20.
ILLINI IN NCAA & B1G RANKINGS
• Illinois is 22nd the nation and leads the Big Ten in aces per set (1.97).
• Illinois ranks 53rd in the nation and paces the conference in service aces (65).
• Junior Taylor Kuper is 17th in the nation and first in the Big Ten in aces per set (0.64).
• Kuper also ranks 30th in the NCAA and leads the Big Ten in aces (21) and is also first in the conference in digs per set (4.39).
• Sophomore Rylee Hinton ranks 58th in the nation and is fifth in the league with 1.24 blocks per set and is 13th in the Big Ten with 41 total blocks.
• Senior Megan Cooney is 98th in the nation and sixth in the Big Ten with 4.30 points per set and is fourth in the league with 142 total points.
• Cooney is also seventh in the conference with 3.70 kills per set.
COONEY'S CAREER WEEKEND AT PENN STATE
Senior Megan Cooney has been a stalwart in the Illini lineup since she has been a freshman - playing in 401 of 410 matches in her four years and seeing action in all but two sets and reached a career milestone during the Illini's weekend at Penn State.
Cooney turned in a match-high and career-high 20 kills in the Friday match on Feb. 5 en route to registering her 1,000th career kill on her 13th of the night and enters the Nebraska weekend with 1,048 career kills.
She then followed up her impressive performance on Friday night with another career night on Saturday (Feb. 6), registering her first-career double-double with a team-high 16 kills and a career-high 12 digs.
WELCOME TO THE 2020-21 VOLLEYBALL SEASON
The 2020-21 season marks the 47th season of Illinois volleyball, with the Illini holding an overall record of 1,007-578-7 (.635) and a mark of 451-284 (.614) in the Big Ten.
The Big Ten Conference will play a league-only schedule for the 2020-21 spring season that will run 11 weeks with two matches each week against the same opponent for a total of 22 regular-season contests. Each school wih have five two-match home series, five two-match road series and one split week with its travel partner. There will be no regular season non-conference matches and the Illini will not face Michigan or Rutgers during the season.
PANDEMIC TIMELINE
• March 13 » Big Ten suspends all athletic activities.
• June 29 » Members of the Illinois team begin returning to campus for voluntary workouts.
• July 9 » Big Ten announces conference-only schedules for fall sports.
• Aug. 7 » Illinois begins volleyball practice.
• Aug. 11 » Big Ten presidents and chancellors postpone all fall sports.
• Sept. 22 » NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved plan to hold 2020 fall championships in spring of 2021 and announces first competition date for volleyball as Jan. 22.
• Dec. 30 » Big Ten announces the 2020-21 volleyball schedule.
• Jan. 22 » Illinois at Iowa - 413 days after the Illini played in its last match in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against Utah on December, 6, 2019.
• Jan. 29 » Illinois vs. Wisconsin - 431 days after the Illini played their last volleyball match in Huff Hall for the 2019 season, earning a 3-1 win over Northwestern on November 27, 2019.
ROSTER RUNDOWN
The Illini return 12 members from the 2019 squad, including All-Big Ten Freshman Team honoree Diana Brown, senior Megan Cooney and defensive specialist Taylor Kuper.
Seniors Kylie Bruder and Emily Hollowell, junior Mica Allison, redshirt-sophomore Bruna Vrankovic and sophomores Kennedy Collins, Rylee Hinton, Kyla Swanson and Alyssa Eske complete the returning roster.
Redshirt-freshman Ellie Holzman - who was with the Illini in 2019, but redshirted the season - will join three other freshmen Maddie Whittington, Raina Terry and Sophie Gregus for the 2020-21 campaign.
BIG TEN NETWORK RELEASES VOLLEYBALL BROADCAST SCHEDULE
Big Ten Network announced its 2020-21 volleyball broadcast schedule on January 19, with Illinois appearing nationally on the network for four matches this spring.
All matches televised on Big Ten Network will also be streamed on FoxSports.com and the FoxSports app. All remaining home matches will be streamed on BTNPlus.com (subscription necessary), with remaining road matches announced at a later date.
» Saturday, January 30 vs. Wisconsin (11 a.m. CT)
» Friday, February 5 at Penn State (8 p.m. CT)
» Friday, March 5 vs. Nebraska (8 p.m. CT)
» Saturday, March 27 vs. Indiana (5 p.m. CT)
HEAD COACH CHRIS TAMAS STARTS FOURTH SEASON AT THE HELM
Chris Tamas is entering his fourth season as head coach of the Fighting Illini volleyball program in 2020-21 after being named to the position in February 2017. Tamas (pronounced Thomas) is the eighth head coach in Illinois history.
In his first four seasons at the helm of the program, Tamas has made an immediate impact on Illinois volleyball and owns an overall record of 73-35 (.676), including a 42-26 (.618) mark in the nation's toughest volleyball league, the Big Ten Conference, as well as three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
Illinois experienced one of its most successful seasons ever in 2018 under Tamas, who was named American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Northeast Region Coach of the Year. The Illini made the program's fourth-ever appearance in the NCAA National Semifinals as the No. 3 overall seed in the tournament – riding a 17-match win streak into the Final Four - and ended the season ranked No. 3 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Coaches Poll. The team registered a 32-4 overall record and finished in second place in the Big Ten Conference with a 17-3 mark, with the 32 victories ranking tied for fourth-most wins in school history.
