Heading into this weekend, Illinois head coach Don Hardin was unsure of what he would get.

He knew he could count on the effort, but the progress his team is making has generally come in small steps.

Illinois had split the past two weekends, moving its goal of a Big Ten championship farther out of reach. After following the lead of injured senior setter Erin Virtue for so long, they were looking for someone to step up, and the longer the team searched, the more games they would have to spot the Big Ten leaders.

This weekend against Michigan and Michigan State, the Illini found the player to look to: senior outside hitter Jessica Belter. Although playing with an injured hand, Belter finished the weekend with 43 kills and hitting percentages of .600 and .519.

“One thing that we condition in practice is never to slack our shoulders,” junior Rasa Virsilaite said. “We always go into games with a winning attitude.”

This attitude was needed against a Michigan team that came in on fire and left extinguished. Belter torched them last year and won national player of the week honors for it, and would continue the Michigan onslaught with 25 kills.

“I don’t think it has to do with a certain opponent,” Belter said. “Michigan has a lot of outside hitters, so maybe it rouses me up. It’s very mental to me and I’ve been really focused the past couple of weeks.”

In the first game against Michigan, it seemed that Illinois still had not found its spark; the Illinois radio analyst commented that it resembled the first game against Wisconsin, a team they had lost to one week prior. Illinois ended up losing the first match but started to look more like themselves pre-injuries. Setter Stephanie Obermeier began to appear more comfortable and the offense started to click – an offense that would hit .303 by the end of the night.

“Win or lose tonight I would have been proud of the learning and progressing we showed,” Hardin said. “We started making adjustments more quickly and because of our serve Michigan was getting frustrated and made errors.”

Illinois fired back to take the next two matches, led by the defense that had earned them a top-ten ranking earlier in the year. Illinois finished with 81 digs on the night, with a few defensive highlights from Kathleen Bazzetta and Lauren Harks. The defense was also sparked by the return of freshman Jen Hynds, who had been sidelined by an ankle injury.

The match ended up going into the rally match, and Illinois would take it. Timely kills from the outside hitters would change the direction of the crucial fifth game. Jessica Belter made it look easy, appearing unstoppable on several occasions.

“I leaned over to a teammate at one point and half-kidding asked if she was hitting 1.000,” Bazzetta said.

Against a mediocre Michigan State team, Illinois would turn to Belter to try and carry the momentum. From the beginning, the plan was to not let the Spartans find life.

“It was a coaching decision whether or not to start Jen Hynds,” Hardin said. “In the end I thought against Michigan State it would be better to get off to a good start.”

Illinois did well because of this decision and swept Michigan State 3-0. Belter continued the Illini’s hot hitting and finished with 18 kills. More importantly, she established herself as the floor leader. Because of her consistency, Obermeier has started to find her niche, becoming more aggressive game by game.

“She looks great and she is really starting to get after it,” Hardin said. “She is not as vocal outwardly as Erin was, but don’t mistake that for her having a non-competitive demeanor. I think she did a great job on the block tonight and that is a new element that Stephanie can do.”

After the team quickly finished off Michigan State, Hardin said he was impressed by the progress he saw.

“We went from being top ten to being in danger of falling out of the rankings all together,” Hardin said. “Now we show capability to get back up there, that’s where we are focused.”

This is important considering next weekend Illinois travels to play Minnesota, a team that has been ranked No. 1 for most of the season.

“We are going up there to break their streak,” Belter said. “That’s what we are all about, breaking streaks.”