Illini Fall in Battle at No. 10 Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Illinois volleyball fell in a hard-fought three-set battle at No. 10 Minnesota on Saturday. After a 25-19 loss in the opening frame, the Illini dropped the next two sets by the minimum at 25-23. Raina Terry delivered a match-high 15 kills while six different Illini recorded an ace.
Illinois moves back even at 9-9 overall and 4-4 in Big Ten matches. Minnesota climbed to 10-6 on the year with a 5-3 record in conference play.
Kayla Burbage got the Illini on the board first with a kill to open Saturday’s action from Maturi Pavilion. Raina Terry struck for back-to-back aces to tie the score at 4-4 and give Illinois the lead at 5-4. A few points later, Burbage added another kill to knot the score at 8-8. From there, Minnesota pushed out to a 12-8 lead, which extended to a 15-10 margin at the media break. Illinois took a timeout trailing 19-11 before outscoring Minnesota 8-6 to close the set, falling 25-19.
Set two saw four lead changes and 11 ties before Minnesota claimed the 25-23 decision. A Kennedy Collins ace tied the frame at 3-3 before Burbage followed with an ace of her own for a 5-5 tie. Brooke Mosher got in on the ace action to give Illinois a 14-11 lead and the Orange and Blue would push ahead for a 15-12 lead at the media timeout. The Golden Gophers kept battling back as Illinois opted for a timeout when its lead shrunk to one at 16-15. Terry’s kill out of the backrow pushed the Illini lead back to two at 18-16. Minnesota took a 19-18 lead before Illinois flipped the score on back-to-back blocks but the Gophers struck again to knot the score at 20-20. Minnesota tallied the next two points as well with Illinois unable to tie to take the lead to close the set.
Out of the break, Illinois took a quick 3-0 lead with Terry, Burbage and Mosher going for three-straight kills. From there, Minnesota responded with a 6-0 run before the Illini knotted the score at 6-6 with another 3-0 run. Diana Brown struck for an ace for the 7-6 advantage and making it so all six Illinois servers (to that point) had recorded an ace in the match. The Illini worked out to a 12-9 lead before Minnesota would regain the lead going into the media break at 15-14. Out of the stoppage, Burbage struck for another kill out of the back row to even the score but Minnesota tallied the next three points to force an Illini called timeout. Trailing 21-16, Illinois would record back-to-back blocks to pull within three. Minnesota called a timeout up 24-22 after a Caroline Barnes ace and she’d follow the timeout with another one, pulling Illinois within one at 24-23. Minnesota would end the match with a kill on the next point, taking the set 25-23 and match 3-0.
Terry struck for 15 kills on 37 swings for a .324 hitting percentage while adding six digs, two blocks and two aces. Burbage finished with nine kills to go along with four digs and three blocks. Mosher added eight kills while Rylee Hinton finished with six and Collins tallied four. Hinton and Collins each added three blocks as well.
Barnes led the Illini with 11 digs while Brown added seven to go along with 37 assists. Barnes owned a team-best three aces.
Illinois tallied more kills (42), attacks (109), assists (40), aces (9) and blocks (6) than Minnesota in the loss.
Illinois volleyball remains on the road with a visit to No. 6 Ohio State slated for Wednesday, Oct. 19. First serve is slated for 5 p.m. CT and the match will air live on the Big Ten Network – Illinois’ third of five-straight nationally televised matches.
Notes:
– Starters: Kennedy Collins, Rylee Hinton, Diana Brown, Kayla Burbage, Caroline Barnes, Raina Terry and Brooke Mosher.
– The Illini wore long sleeve blue jerseys featuring pink lettering for the first time of the season in honor of Minnesota’s Pink Match and are now 0-0 when wearing those.
– Six different Illini recorded an ace while only seven Illini served in the match. Missouri State (9/9/22) was the only other match where six different Illini recorded an ace. Seven Illini served in that outing as well.
– Illinois trails the all-time series against Minnesota 39-43-1 after Saturday’s loss. That mark includes a 16-22 record when playing in Minneapolis and 12-11 mark when playing on national television.
– The Illinois volleyball program is now 111-95 all-time playing a televised match, including a 30-40 record in Big Ten Network aired contests.
– Attendance Saturday afternoon was called at 4,697.