After starting off the conference play 0-3, Illinois volleyball (10-5, 2-3) has found some footing in the Big Ten after beating Michigan. The team went from losing 10 straight sets to winning six straight.
This win over Michigan is one of quality since the Wolverines came into this game with only one conference loss under their belt. Illinois has now won two in a row during Big Ten competition.
The win for head coach Chris Tamas now moves him 6-4 all-time against Michigan. The sweep is the fourth Illinois has on the season. Tamas mentioned the biggest thing the team needs to work on is being able to get things done at the service line.
“I like to keep some of the service pressure on them a little bit more, especially when they have trouble siding out,” Tamas said. “I feel like we’re bailing them out a little bit too much with an error and not a good error at that. We’ve got to make sure you’re playing that high-risk, high-reward game.”
Illinois has seen trouble at the line, having 34 total service errors in the last three games. Today the team cleaned it up some, but still finished with more service errors than Michigan. Illinois stands eighth in the conference when it comes to service errors with 147 on the year.
“I think everyone’s a good-serving team. In our regard, you’ve got to attack every team,” Tamas said. “If it was just to put the ball in play and deal with it, a lot of teams would make you pay for that. We’ve always been in attack mode since we’ve been here. I’m not going to change that anytime soon.”
Graduate student outside hitter Raina Terry stood out today for Illinois, as she had another double-digit kill game against Michigan. She ended up being one kill away from her season high in three-set-match.
Each set saw both teams match each other blow-for-blow. Illinois’ largest set win margin came in set one; they won by six. That first frame saw both teams going back and forth, but once Michigan took a four-point lead, Illinois needed to regroup with a timeout.
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The timeout was just what they needed, and the team had a series of runs to help capture the lead. Michigan ended up using both of its timeouts to try to regroup, but it wasn’t enough.
The Illini’s offense seemed too much for the Wolverines as neither timeout gained them any momentum to crawl back into the set.
The same theme demonstrated itself in the second set: Michigan held the lead, which forced Illinois to burn its first timeout of the set. However, this time, Illinois did not take back the lead.
Illinois eventually had to burn its second timeout of the set to try and regroup once more as they trailed by a six-point margin. This timeout from Tamas worked, allowing Illinois to crawl back into the match.
Both teams eventually got squared up at 21 points apiece. Illinois locked in defensively at this point as Michigan only scored one more time to finish the set, and Illinois came out on top in set two.
Illinois’ defense played a major role in today’s win. The team out-blocked Michigan 13-2. Six of those blocks came from freshman middle blocker Ashlyn Philpot.
Set three was similar, but different because Illinois jumped out to a 6-1 lead. Just like Illinois in sets one and two, Michigan did not go away. The opponents scored six in a row to tie up both teams at 11.
The turning point in set three was when redshirt junior setter Brooke Mosher added an ace to her stat line. In total, she led the team in aces, having had two in this match.
The sweep was sealed after freshman outside hitter Laynie Smith got the game-winning kill. Both Smith and Philpot finished the game with six kills.
Illinois continues its Michigan road trip on Saturday. Next, the team will take on a Michigan State squad still seeking its first conference win of the year. The first hit is at 3 p.m. and can be found on the Big Ten Network.
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