FIRST SERVE | WEEK 11
The Illinois volleyball team will finish up the 2020-21 regular season with a trip to West Lafayette, Ind., for a final two-match series against No. 8 Purdue on April 2-3.
The Illini and Boilermakers will open the weekend with a 6 p.m. CT match on Friday night, before a 12:30 p.m. CT contest on Saturday. Both matches will be broadcasted on Big Ten Network, with fans also able listen to both matches on the radio on WDWS 1400 in Champaign and online at wdws.com.
ILLINOIS VS. THE FIELD
The Illini own a 48-41 record in the all-time series with Purdue and are 18-22 in West Lafayette - with UI winning three-straight in Holloway Gym, dating back to 2016.
Illinois has won three-straight against Purdue, including earning a 3-1 win over then-No. 17 Purdue the two teams' lone meeting of 2019.
Megan Cooney led all Illini returners with a then-career-high-tying 19 kills on a .333 hitting percentage, with Mica Allison adding a career-high nine kills.
Diana Brown had another strong outing to post her eighth-career double-double with 51 assists and 13 digs to go along with a career-high five blocks.
The Illini also had four players reach double figures in digs, with Taylor Kuper posting 11 digs in the win.
It was also another strong match at the net, with Kennedy Collins leading the charge with a career-high seven blocks.
ILLINI WRAP HOME SLATE WITH IU SWEEP
In its final weekend in Huff Hall for the 2020-21 season, the Illinois volleyball team notched a weekend sweep of Indiana as the Illini earned their third-and-fourth straight wins of the season with a 3-0 sweep on Friday, before a 3-1 win on Senior Night on Saturday
In Friday's 3-0 sweep - the first sweep of the season for UI - freshman Raina Terry registered her 10th-straight double-digit kill outing with 11 kills on a .364 hitting percentage, with redshirt-sophomore Bruna Vrankovic joining her with 10 kills on the night.
Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown continued her standout play with her fifth-straight double-double – the 23rd of her career and team-leading ninth of the season – with 32 assists, team-highs of 10 digs and three blocks as well as posting three kills on a .500 attack clip. The setter also directed the Illini to their highest hitting percentage of the season with a .284 percentage in the win.
The Illini then sent their seniors off in style on Saturday night as sophomore Kennedy Collins led with 12 kills on a .527 hitting percentage, with Vrankovic also totaling 12 kills and senior Megan Cooney joining the duo in double figures with 10 kills on the night.
Brown handed out 44 assists to go along with nine digs and three blocks, while leading the Illini to a .229 team attack clip.
As a team, the Illini dominated the Hoosiers at the net with a season-high 15.5 blocks to IU's nine. Sophomore Rylee Hinton paced the team with a career-high 10 blocks, while Collins and Cooney added five stuffs and Terry contributed four blocks in the win.
Junior Taylor Kuper turned in team-high 10 digs and equaled a career-high with five aces.
WEEKEND STANDOUTS
Sophomore middle blockers Kennedy Collins and Rylee Hinton had a standout weekend as the duo combined for 27 kills on a .490 hitting percentage with only three errors on 49 swings, while also stuffing 21 blocks for a 3.00 blocks per set mark.
Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown had another strong weekend as she handed out 76 assists for a 10.86 assists per set average en route to leading the Illini to a .252 team hitting percentage. She also totaled a team-high 19 digs, six blocks and five kills on a .333 attack clip.
Classmate Bruna Vrankovic turned in a team-high 22 kills, with freshman Raina Terry adding 20 kills on a .240 hitting percentage to go along with nine digs, five blocks and three aces.
Junior Taylor Kuper also posted team-highs of 19 digs and eight aces, while also helping to hold Indiana to a .119 hitting percentage.
TERRY TEARING IT UP
A regular in the lineup all season, freshman Raina Terry has turned her play on the court up another level and registered a period of 10-straight double-digit kill outings in the last 11 matchews as well as posting double-doubles in five of her last 10 matches.
In her last 10 matches, Terry has totaled a team-leading 145 kills for a 3.72 kills per set average on a .218 hitting percentage, while also adding the third-most digs on the team with 83 (2.13 digs per set) and the second-most aces with 21. She has also notched 10 blocks in that span.
Terry posted career-highs against Maryland on March 19-20, with 23 kills on Saturday and 15 digs and eight aces on Friday.
Her eight aces also tied for the second-most in a single match in program history, just one off the program record of nine, set by Colleen Ward against BYU during the 2010 season.
ILLINI IN NCAA & B1G RANKINGS
• Illinois ranks 12th in the nation and paces the conference in service aces (120).
• Illinois is 18th the nation and leads the Big Ten in aces per set (1.90).
• Illinois is seventh in the Big Ten with 13.29 digs per set.
• Junior Taylor Kuper is third in the NCAA and leads the Big Ten in aces (39).
• Kuper also ranks seventh in the nation and first in the Big Ten in aces per set (0.62).
• Kuper ranks fifth the conference in digs per set (4.22).
• Freshman Raina Terry is 44th nationally and third in the Big Ten with 27 aces and 48th in the NCAA and fourth in the league in aces per set (0.45).
• Sophomore Rylee Hinton ranks 49th in the nation and seventh in the Big Ten with 75 total blocks and is 53rd in the NCAA and eighth in the conference with 1.23 blocks per set.
• Redshirt-sophomore Diana Brown ranks 10th in the Big Ten with 7.49 assists per set.
• Senior Megan Cooney is 10th in the conference with 3.39 kills per set.
THE BIG TEN GAUNTLET
After opening the 2020-21 season with a pair of wins at Iowa on Jan. 22-23, Illinois faced five of the top six teams in the Big Ten Conference in consecutive weeks, with all five teams continuing to sit in the top 12 of this week's AVCA Volleyball Top 25 Poll: No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Nebraska, No. 10 Ohio State and No. 11 Penn State. The Illini are set to face the sixth team - No. 8 Purdue - this weekend, the final weekend of the regular season on April 2-3.
The Illini are also one of only three teams to take a set of No. 1 Wisconsin and were the first team to do so, winning the third set in its Saturday match against the Badgers on Jan. 30.
THE 2020-21 VOLLEYBALL SEASON
The 2020-21 season marks the 47th season of Illinois volleyball, with the Illini holding an overall record of 1,011-582-7 (.634) and a mark of 455-288 (.612) 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
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.
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 77-39 (.664), including a 46-30 (.605) 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.
