IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Illinois volleyball team opened Big Ten Conference play with a gritty five-set (24-26, 25-20, 25-20, 17-25, 15-5) victory over Iowa, marking the eighth-straight season the Illini have won its league opener, on Wednesday (Sept. 22) night in Xtream Arena.
Graduate student Megan Cooney paced the Illini (9-3, 1-0 B1G) with her eighth-career double-double with a season-high-tying 17 kills on a .317 hitting percentage to go along with 11 digs, five blocks and three aces. Junior Jessica Nunge turned in a career-high 14 kills, a season-high eight digs, three aces and two blocks, while sophomore Raina Terry joined the duo in double figures with 10 kills, while adding eight digs and four blocks.
Redshirt-junior Diana Brown continued her strong play with her 29th career double-double and fifth of the season with 38 assists and a career-high 20 digs, while directing the Illini to a .221 team attack clip.
Senior Taylor Kuper came within one assist of her second-career double-double with 28 digs, nine assists and two aces, with freshman Caroline Barnes reaching double figures for the first time with a career-high 10 digs on the night.
As a team, the Illini outblocked the Hawkeyes (2-9, 0-1), 11.0 to 4.0, with junior Kyla Swanson posting a match-high nine blocks.
The two teams traded points to open the match until the Illini used a 5-0 run to take a 15-11 lead midway through the set. Back-to-back Hawkeye points stalled the rally, but UI took the next three of four scores to go ahead at 17-14. The home team battled back to tie things up at 20-20 with a 9-5 run as the two teams battled back-and-forth. After a Cooney kill put the Illini up at 23-21, the Hawkeyes responded with three-unanswered points to take a 24-23 edge. Another Cooney kill evened the score at 24-24, but a UI service error combined with a Hawkeye kill gave Iowa the 26-24 set one win.
It was a tight battle in the second with 16 ties and nine lead changes as neither team grabbed more than a two-point edge until late in the stanza. Trailing 20-19, a Brown kills kicked off six-unanswered points on the Columbus, Ohio native's serve to take the second, 25-20.
The Hawkeyes jumped out to an early 5-3 advantage, before a 6-1 run put the Illini ahead at 9-6. Iowa answered back with three-straight scores to knot the score at 9-9 as teams traded two-point leads over the next several points. A Terry kill then started a 4-0 run to give the Illini a 14-12 advantage, but the Hawkeyes again came back to even the score at 16-16. With the set tied again at 18-18, a Nunge kill started a 7-2 run as kills from Terry and Cooney and a block from Terry and Swanson finished off the 25-20 third to put the Illini ahead 2-1 in the match.
After a 4-1 start to the fourth from the home team, a kill from Kennedy Collins brought the Illini within 5-4. The Hawkeyes then jumped out to a three-point lead at 8-5, but kills from Terry and Brown closed the deficit to two at 9-7. Iowa then put together an 8-8 run to take a 17-10 advantage. Back-to-back Illini points cut the Hawkeye lead to 19-13, but a 4-1 mini run gave Iowa set point at 24-14. UI then fought off three set points before a Hawkeye kill pushed the match to a fifth and final set with a 25-17 score in the fourth.
After Iowa scored the opening point of the decisive fifth set, a kill by Swanson followed by back-to-back Nunge kills started an 11-1 run – highlighted by six-straight points on the serve of Cooney, including a pair of aces. Back-to-back Hawkeye scores slowed the Illini only momentarily as UI finished off the five-set win with four of the next five points – capped by a Collins kill on match point – for the 15-5 victory in the fifth.
Illinois next returns home to Huff Hall for its conference home opener as the Illini will look to "Stuff Huff" against Northwestern on Saturday (Sept. 25) at 7 p.m. CT.
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