UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Illinois volleyball closed out its first full Big Ten weekend on the road with a 3-0 loss at No. 13 Penn State from Rec Hall on Sunday afternoon. The Orange and Blue tallied 10 blocks – including six in the opening frame – for the squad's third double-digit block performance of the season.
Illinois is back even at 8-8 with the weekend split and now owns a 3-3 mark in Big Ten play. Penn State improved to 15-2 overall and 4-2 in league action.
First-set action from Rec Hall saw six ties by the 8-8 mark. Penn State's kill to knot the match set off a 7-0 run by the Nittany Lions for a 14-8 advantage. Illinois would call a timeout trailing 17-10 and scored seven of the next nine points out of the break to pull within 19-17. PSU pushed its lead back to three at 20-17 but a 3-0 Illini run evened things up. The Lions surged on 3-0 run before Illinois used a couple kills to pull back within one at 23-22 but Penn State would ultimately take a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-22 win.
The Illini racked up six blocks in the opening frame and limited Penn State to a .077 hitting clip.
Illinois struck first in set two off a Raina Terry kill and worked out to a 5-1 and 7-3 lead early on. Penn State would knot things up at 9-9 and 13-13 and forced an Illinois timeout at 19-16. Two points later, the Orange and Blue called their second stoppage trailing 21-16. Illinois battled all the way back within two at 23-21 but would again fall 25-22 as Penn State took a 2-0 lead in the match.
Scoring started evenly in set three before Penn State took 8-4 and 12-8 leads. Illinois called timeouts trailing 15-10 and 19-12 before another late set rally ensued. A 3-0 Illini run on consecutive kills forced a PSU timeout at 20-15. The Orange and Blue pulled within four at 21-17 but Penn State closed out the match with a 25-19 third-set win.
Brooke Mosher led the Illini with 11 kills on a .250 hitting percentage while adding five digs and two blocks. Raina Terry was just behind her, tallying nine kills.
Diana Brown dished out 25 assists to go along with seven digs and a season-best four blocks. Caroline Barnes added six assists along with a team-best nine digs.
In her return, Rylee Hinton led the team with five blocks. She's up to four outings with five or more blocks in eight matches played this season.
Kayla Burbage and Kennedy Collins each added three blocks apiece. Collins also added Illinois' lone ace of the day.
Illinois volleyball is back in action on Wednesday night when the squad returns to Huff Hall to host Rutgers for a 7 p.m. CT matchup. The contest will be broadcast on ESPNU and will be the first game on television this season for Illinois.
Notes:
- Starters: Kennedy Collins, Rylee Hinton, Diana Brown, Kayla Burbage, Caroline Barnes, Raina Terry and Brooke Mosher.
- The Illini wore long sleeve orange jerseys for the sixth time of the season and are now 3-3 when wearing those.
- Illinois trails in the all-time series 12-50 with Sunday's loss including a 4-28 mark when playing in College Park.
- Attendance Sunday afternoon was called at 2,520
