Following a pair of losses at the Irish Invitational last week, Illinois volleyball returned to Central Illinois for a match at Bradley. The two squads entered the night in vastly different situations, with Illinois sitting at 4-3 and Bradley at 7-2. Even after a rough first set, the Illini battled through to claim their fifth win of the season (3-1).
During Illinois’ time in Indiana, senior hitter Raina Terry continued her dominance en route to 35 total kills. Graduate blocker Kennedy Collins and redshirt freshman blocker Cari Bohm led the way defensively, totaling team-highs with 15 digs and 8 blocks. Freshman libero Lily Barry also racked up her fair share of points for the Illini, dropping in four service aces across the two matches.
The overall struggles from the previous week bled into the first set of this match and Illinois fell behind early. Bradley pushing its lead to 12-6 even forced Illinois head coach Chris Tamas to call an uncharacteristically early timeout. Unfortunately, a break from the action to regroup was not the solution to Illinois’ problems, and the score continued to favor Bradley until the final whistle (25-16).
With a clean slate ahead of them in the second set, the Illini rebounded impressively. Through 29 serves, Illinois held a tight 15-14 lead, which it hung onto through the 21-19 mark as well. Although not as dominant as Bradley’s first set victory, Illinois toughed out an extremely contested back-and-forth for an eventual 25-23 victory.
Illinois’ ability to dominate a match was on full display in the third set. Thunderous kills and even a service ace from junior libero Caroline Barnes summed up a scorching hot 8-2 open for the Illini. From there, Illinois added on five more consecutive points to blow the set wide open at 13-3. Bradley managed to dig into the lead by a considerable amount by the time set point rolled around, even keeping Illinois at bay on two more occasions before ultimately falling 25-22.
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The fourth set featured Bradleyʼs ability to rally, rather than crumble to Illinoisʼ hitting prowess. With a 9-8 advantage and just one more set needed for victory, Tamas called another early timeout. The Illini fell behind shortly after, trailing 14-12 at about the halfway point of the set, but pushed themselves back into the driverʼs seat via a 5-0 run. Terry sealed the deal with a kill that gave Illinois a 25-21 advantage.
As per usual, Terry led the Illini in kills with 16 total, but Collins with 10 and fifth-year hitter Jessica Nunge with 9 were not far behind. Barry boasted a team-high 11 digs and also picked a pair of service aces. This was outdone, however, by Barnes and Nunge who impressively had three service aces each.
Illinois volleyball will be back in action this Thursday, kicking off its appearance at the Boilermaker Challenge with a 4:30 p.m. matchup against USC.
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