CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – After battling back from a two-set deficit, the Illinois volleyball dropped a five-set (21-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-22, 18-16) heartbreaker to Colorado in its final match of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge on Saturday (Sept. 4) afternoon in Huff Hall.
Graduate student Megan Cooney led the Illini (3-2) with team-highs of 15 kills on a .256 hitting percentage, six blocks and four aces, while adding nine digs. Junior Kennedy Collins and sophomore Raina Terry each posted 12 kills, with Collins and sophomore Maddie Whittington – in her first-career action at Illinois – also adding five blocks in the contest.
Redshirt-junior Diana Brown handed out 42 assists and seven digs, four blocks three kills on a .750 attack clip and two aces.
Defensively, senior Taylor Kuper led the way with her eighth-career 20-dig match with a team-high 21 digs to go along with three aces. As a team, the Illini totaled 15 aces against the Buffs (4-0), which ties for the fifth-most service aces in a match in program history.
After dropping the first two sets and needing a win in the third to continue the match, the Illini would break a 6-6 tie with six unanswered scores for a 12-6 edge. The Illini continued to hold their advantage as a Cooney kill made it 17-12 in the third. Back-to-back UC points closed the score to 17-13, but that would be as close as the visitors would get as UI took the stanza 25-16 on a Collins kill.
The Illini used that momentum to jump out to a quick 4-2 lead in the fourth, before the Buffs knotted the score at 4-4. From there, neither team had more than a two-point advantage until the Illini broke a 19-19 tie with a 5-0 run to set up set point at 24-19 following a Cooney and Whittington block. UC fought off three set points, before a Terry kill sent the Illini to the 25-22 set win and pushed the match to a decisive fifth set.
The Buffaloes started off the fifth in fast fashion, taking an 8-3 lead early in the stanza, but the Illini battled back with three-straight scores to tie things at 10-10 after another Cooney and Whittington stuff. After trading points, a Cooney kill combined with a Cooney and Collins block gave the home team their first match point at 14-12. Colorado answered back with back-to-back kills to knot the score at 14-14. After an Illini service error gave the visitors their first match point at 16-15, a Collins kills fought it off, but the Buffs would come right back with back-to-back scores for the 18-16 set win to take the match, 3-2.  Â
The Illini continue its nonconference schedule with a trip to Omaha, Neb., for the Bluejay Invitational, hosted by Creighton on Sept. 10-11.
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