OMAHA, Neb. – The Illinois volleyball team needed just over 80 minutes to dispatch SMU in a 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-18) sweep in its second match of the Bluejay Invitational on Friday (September 10) night in in D.J. Sokol Arena.
Sophomore Raina Terry and junior Jessica Nunge continued where they left off from this morning's match as Terry once again led the Illini (5-2) with a match-high 14 kills on a career-high .591 hitting percentage after just one error in 22 swings. Nunge added 11 kills to go along with career-high-tying four service aces on the night.
Redshirt-junior Diana Brown passed out 33 assists as she directed to their second-straight .306 team hitting percentage.
Defensively, senior Taylor Kuper notched her ninth-career 20-dig match with 20 in the win, while redshirt-freshman Maddie Whittington – who earned her first start of her Illini career – led with four blocks, as Illinois held the Mustangs (2-5) to a .020 team attack clip.
The Illini jumped out to an early 11-3 lead highlighted by back-to-back aces from Nunge before an SMU timeout. Back-to-back Mustang points cut the edge to 11-5, but the Illini continued to hold their advantage as the two traded points over the next several rallies. With SMU within at 15-9, the Illini pushed its lead to 20-12 following another Nunge ace, before a Terry kill combined with an SMU attack error sent UI to a 25-14 win in set one.
It was another fast start in the second with a 6-1 run to start the stanza, but an Illini service error closed the gap to within 9-5. The Illini responded to push the score back to 15-8 after a Nunge kill, but SMU countered with back-to-back point to edge within 15-10. Back-to-back Nunge kills stalled the rally as the Illini finished off the set with a 10-3 run for the 25-13 victory and the 2-0 advantage in the match.
The Illini continued their momentum into the third as a 10-2 lead – facilitated by the strong serving of graduate student Megan Cooney – quickly moved to a 16-5 advantage following a bad SMU set. A Cooney kill pushed the score to 19-8 midway through the third, but the Mustangs battled back with seven-unanswered scores to cut the lead to 19-15. An SMU service error stopped the rally as the two teams went back-and-forth until back-to-back kills from Terry and Whittington sealed the 25-18 set win for the sweep.
The Illini next wrap up play at the Bluejay Invitational with a 10:30 a.m. CT meeting with host Creighton on Saturday (Sept. 11) morning.
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