CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Illinois volleyball team had set points in both the first and second sets but could not finish as the Illini dropped a 3-0 (24-26, 28-30, 17-25) decision to No. 4 Nebraska on Friday (March 5) night in Huff Hall.
For the fourth-straight match freshman Raina Terry led the Illini (2-8) offensively with a team-high 13 kills on a .320 hitting percentage to go along with a team-best three service aces against the Huskers (9-1). Senior Megan Cooney joined her in double figures with 11 kills, while adding five digs and two blocks.
Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown passed out 32 assists on the night, while adding eight digs and two blocks, while defensively junior Taylor Kuper totaled a match-high 15 digs and sophomore Rylee Hinton put up a match-best three blocks.
In a tightly contested opening period that saw nine ties and five lead changes, three-straight Illini points broke a 5-5 tie to give the home team the early momentum, before stretching their advantage to 14-9 on a kill from senior Emily Hollowell. After NU came back to even the score at 16-16, it was back-and-forth from there until a 4-1 run pushed UI ahead at 23-20. A Cooney kill three points later gave the Illini set point at 24-22, but back-to-back UI errors and a pair of Husker kills gave the visitors the opener, 26-24.
Nebraska jumped out to an early 6-2 edge in the second period, but the Illini fought back to tie things up at 9-9 following a Terry ace. The Huskers answered right back with a 5-1 run to pull ahead at 14-10 and continued to hold a four-point advantage until Illinois used a 5-1 run of its own to go from down 20-16 to a 21-21 tie on a block from Cooney and sophomore Kennedy Collins. The two teams then traded points as a Collins kill made it set point at 24-23, but a Husker kill again knotted the score at 24-24. The Illini then fought off four set points as the two teams battled until Nebraska converted its fifth set point at 30-28 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Despite the deficit, the Illini came out firing in the third, scoring the first four points on the serve of Terry. The Huskers fought back to tie things at 6-6 as the two teams traded scores over the next several points. With the set knotted at 14-14, the Huskers then ended the match with an 11-3 run to take the third, 25-17, for the 3-0 win. Â
Next Up
The Illini next travel to Minneapolis, Minn., to take on No. 5 Minnesota in a two-match series on March 12-13.
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