Despite losing its first match of the year against Louisville on Friday, the Illinois volleyball team rebounded to take second place at the UNLV Classic in Las Vegas over the weekend.

After struggling against the Cardinals in the tournament opener, the Illini played much better in their next two matches against UNLV and Rutgers to finish the tournament 2-1. The Illini are now 8-1 on the season.

“We were up and down,” said Illini head coach Don Hardin, “We’re starting to play at a higher level now, we just need to sustain it.”

In Friday’s opener, the Illini were never able to get their offense moving and the No. 11-ranked Cardinals cruised to a 30-20, 30-26 and 30-26 victory.

“We struggled to block their offense, and they had too much experience up front,” Hardin said.

Senior Rachel VanMeter led the Illini with 20 kills, while redshirt freshman Kayani Turner added 11. Turner was starting in the place of fellow freshman Rachel Henderson, who was recently sidelined with mononucleosis.

After the loss, Hardin’s Illini quickly regrouped to defeat host-UNLV in five games 30-22, 22-30, 30-26, 26-30 and 15-12.

Tied at 9-9 in the fifth game, the Illini defense tightened, and the offense responded by outscoring the Rebels 6-3 over the remainder of the game to win the match.

“We seemed to play inconsistent against them (UNLV),” Hardin said. “When we blocked well, we were able to beat them easily but when we didn’t, they beat us.”

VanMeter again led the Illini in kills in the match with 32, while junior libero Beth Vrdsky recorded a career-high 29 digs and sophomore setter Stephanie Obermeier added a season-high 62 assists.

“I knew they both played well, but I didn’t know they set those marks,” Hardin said. “I think UNLV’s defense really played into their game.”

In Saturday’s tournament finale, Illinois jumped out to a big lead against Rutgers and never looked back en route to a 30-18, 30-27 and 30-23 victory.

The Illini offense was the story of the match, with VanMeter recording 18 kills and Turner and sophomore Vicky Brown adding 13 and 10, respectively. Obermeier also recorded 45 assists in the match.

“We played our best against them, Vicky played especially well,” Hardin said.

The Illini will have a week off before hosting the State Farm Illini Classic at Huff Hall beginning this Friday. Illinois will play Eastern Illinois in the first round.

Hardin said he plans to work on defense and blocking primarily this week, but knows because of the high risk of injury in practicing blocking that his Illini can’t get too aggressive.

“It’s sort of a catch-22 for us because we need to practice but there’s such a high risk of injury when you practice blocking at the net. As thin as our roster is right now, we can’t afford to lose anyone else,” Hardin said.

But despite roster struggles, Hardin still likes where his team is right now in the season.

“We’re still progressing, but we’re playing better now than we were weeks ago, so we’re in a good position.”