For Liz McMahon and the Illinois volleyball team, it was just another game.

Illinois swept Long Beach State on Friday night, but neither McMahon nor the Illini saw the win as revenge for their loss at the hands of the 49er’s last year, they just saw it as a good way to start the year.

“It feels good just to get a win in general because it’s the first game,” senior outside hitter McMahon said. “They’re a very good team. We didn’t really know what to expect other than that they’ve been a sound team for year so it was a really good solid win.”

Illinois weathered the Long Beach State attack in each of the first two sets, taking both sets by a score of 25-21, before blowing the match open in the third set, eventually winning it 25-15, to complete the sweep.

“I thought they settled in and played determined to win which was the biggest thing that we wanted to see,” head coach Kevin Hambly said. “They found a way to win at the end of those two sets and played with a nice level of determination and execution when it mattered.”

The first set between the Illini and the 49ers was highly contested. Illinois and Long Beach State traded the lead back and forth four times and the teams tied nine times, but after Hambly called a timeout with the Illini down 19-17 to calm his team, Illinois stayed composed and came out with a win in the first set.

The second set was more of the same as Illinois and Long Beach State traded points back and forth. Illinois built a 2-0 lead to start the set but couldn’t expand upon it until senior outside hitter Morganne Criswell smashed a kill down the left sideline to give the Illini a 12-9 advantage.

The 49ers rallied, scoring six unanswered points to gain a 15-12 lead. Behind a strong second set led by McMahon, junior outside hitter Jocelyn Birks and sophomore middle blocker Katie Stadick the Illini tied the match at 16, 17 and 21 before eventually winning the second set 25-21.

Aside from the intensity that the 49ers came into the match with, Stadick thought anxiety could have also played a factor in why the first two sets were so closely contested.

“We were just dealing with nerves in the beginning just trying to get used to the crowd and all the energy and just trying to get focused on what we needed to do,” Stadick said. “Then the third game we were just ready for it and ready to battle a little bit more.”

Illinois carried the momentum it found in the second set into the start of the third, as the Illini jumped to a 9-2 lead before running away with the set 25-15.

“During the break (between the second and third sets) we saw how good we could be at closing a set so we tried to start with that mentality from the beginning and I think we did good at that,” McMahon said. “We had a little lull in the middle but we closed it out.”

The Illini were led by their outside hitters offensively, as Birks, Criswell and McMahon all recorded 10 or more kills in the match.

Although the Illini would like to celebrate their win, the team won’t have much time to do so as Illinois will play Southern Illinois Saturday at 10 A.M. Hambly wants the quick turnaround to be a positive for the Illini, who he hopes will be able to string two more wins together to close out the weekend on a high note.

“This one’s gone,” Hambly said. “We’ve got to worry about the next one and see if we can string together a couple w’s here and get in the habit of winning. We have to get in the habit of winning matches.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.