Illinois (5-4) headed home to Huff Hall this weekend after spending the season’s first few weeks away. Fans showed up to the historic building full of spirit. The student section was the beacon of energy. Whenever the opposition took to the side of the court near the section, they heard raucous chants of “Short! Short! Short!” as they served.
“I’m very excited to be back in Huff,” said sophomore middle blocker Ashlyn Philpot. “I love our fans. I love the atmosphere they create, and I am super excited for all of our freshmen to experience a Huff Hall game day.”
Facing Iowa State (10-1) Saturday evening, Illinois fell 1-3 in a match of “what-ifs.” But, as has been the case this season, the team bounced back Sunday with a sweep against Eastern Illinois (6-4). The Illini now sit 5-4 as they enter the all-important conference slate.
Cyclones warning
The second set was the story Saturday evening. After losing a close set one, the Illini stayed ahead throughout the second set. They won the race to 20 points and rushed to a 24-18 set-point lead. A service error and two sharp Cyclones kills prompted Illini head coach Chris Tamas to take a timeout.
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The Illini came out of the timeout with a net violation and another conceded point that brought the score to 24-23. They had no answers for the Cyclones’ quick returns. This enabled the Cyclones to storm back after being down six and win the second set on the back of an 8-0 run. When asked about the second set, Tamas described it as “a bad mix of everything.”
Saturday evening saw a lot of rallies, especially in the second and fourth sets. Both teams played good volleyball, returning the ball plenty of times. Even though Illinois countered returns well, it struggled to gain points off of rallies.
This disadvantage sank the Illini in set four. They tried to stay within reach with highly physical back-and-forths, but trailed by at least five for a majority of the set.
The Illini lacked consistency in the loss, but the box score shows a more evenly matched fight. Illinois had more blocks (8) and service aces (12) than Iowa State, while the teams were even in errors (19).
“I just think they were a little bit more efficient than us,” Tamas said. “They kept more balls off the ground. You can’t error your way to victory. We’ve got to figure out how to limit some of those. There are ones that we can control and there are some that we can’t.”
Redshirt sophomore opposite Auburn Tomkinson had one of her best games of the season — 11 kills with one block and an ace with a 0.444 hit percentage.
“I thought (Tomkinson) had a really nice match,” Tamas said. “We knew they were keying up on her outside. We know they were gonna try to take her out. Auburn was able to get a lot of one-on-one kills and able to score a lot of points tonight. It’s good to see.”
Straight-set win
In a Sunday afternoon matchup, Illinois appeared tired early after Saturday’s hard-fought loss. Eastern Illinois started 4-0 and 3-0 in the first and second sets, respectively. But once the Illini got settled in, the Panthers were unable to stitch together another run in the sets until it was too late.
Illinois’ blocking line near the net that Tomkinson and redshirt sophomore outside hitter Taylor de Boer formed was one of the key factors Saturday, and it played a role Sunday, too. With eight blocks once again on Sunday, the Illini never let the Panthers’ offense get going.
Eastern Illinois fought back in the third set, going on a 6-0 run to take an early 7-4 lead. The teams went back and forth until Illinois reached game point at 24-23. After three deuces, the Illini finally took advantage to win the set and the game 3-0 off the back of two Panther errors.
Freshman outside hitter Alyssa Aguayo was the star with her fifth double-double of the season. She breached the 10-kill mark for the seventh time this year, leading the team with 13 kills and 10 digs. Philpot backed her performance against Iowa State to finish with nine kills and team-leading four blocks at a hit percentage of 0.375.
Big Ten, big time
Illinois finds itself at 5-4 after an up-and-down start to the season. The non-conference slate is over; it’s Big Ten time. Illinois starts the season-defining slate Friday at 8 p.m. at home against Oregon (9-1).
