With a pair of solid wins in the first two games, the Illinois volleyball team appeared to be well on its way to an easy season-opening victory against Illinois State Friday at Redbird Arena in Normal.

But the Redbirds hadn’t been practicing all summer to roll over.

Nearly one year after the Illini had embarrassed the Redbirds in a three-set victory at Huff Hall on Sept. 1, ISU climbed right back into the match with convincing wins in the third and fourth games, before the Illini finally righted the ship en route to a thrilling 30-24, 30-19, 23-30, 21-30 and 15-11 victory.

“It’s great to start the season with a win, but we’re not even close to where we can be,” said Illini head coach Don Hardin. “We played much better than we did last week in the alumni match, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

The Illini were led by a phenomenal performance by senior outside hitter Rachel VanMeter, who’s 39 kills set a Redbird Arena record for kills in a single match and was also the third highest kills mark in Illini history.

“It was a record-setting performance,” Hardin said. “Historically, (Redbird Arena) has always been a great place for volleyball and for Rachel to set the record really shows something about how well she played.”

In the first game, the Illini opened up an early 16-9 advantage until ISU charged back. The Redbirds closed the gap to 21-19 before the Illini finally pulled away for the win.

In the second game, both teams traded blows for awhile, then the Illini got going. Down 13-12, Illinois outscored the Redbirds 18-6 over the remainder of the game to win rather handily.

But the Redbirds started to claw back.

In the third game, the Redbirds led by as much as nine points and never let up while taking the game 30-23.

Things didn’t get better in the fourth game as the Illini led only once before falling by nine.

All of a sudden, what had been a commanding 2-0 lead was gone and the Redbirds seemed poised to pull off the win.

“When you get up 2-0 and take your 12 minute break, it always seems to happen that the other team kind of looks in the mirror a little bit and comes back out with a little extra,” Hardin said. “Most experienced teams know how to combat that, but we’re still a young team, and young teams are notorious for playing a little different on the road.”

Hardin added, “We got rattled in games three and four, and that comes with inexperience. It was great to get all four of our freshmen out on the court, but they’re still learning.”

Yet somehow the Illini rebounded, opening up an early 6-2 lead in the final game. The Redbirds made several pushes but could never pull ahead as the Illini held on to win.

In addition to VanMeter, fellow senior Rasa Virsilaite added 11 kills for the Illini, while setters Stephanie Obermeier and Lizzie Bazzetta each had solid matches, recording 36 and 29 assists, respectively.

Savannah Knowles led the Redbirds with 20 kills.

“I just thought we played very well, win or lose,” Hardin said. “I was very proud of the girls. I’d say we’re operating at about 50 to 60 percent of our total capacity right now, but we’re getting there.”