This past weekend proved to be haunting for Illinois (12-7, 7-3). After two weeks on the road, the Illini finally returned to Huff Hall, only to be swept out of their own building.
Even so, there were positives to take away from back-to-back sweeps, but the negatives formed a dark cloud over an otherwise good season up to this point.
“Taylor de Boer, point Illinois”
That was the recurring line over the public address system at Huff Hall this weekend. Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Taylor de Boer still managed to leave her mark on the court. Despite strong defensive efforts by the opposition, she still managed 31 kills over two matches.
“ I felt like maybe that wasn’t the team best or my personal best, even,” de Boer said Friday. “I think that no matter what it was, I was trying to be aggressive with it and whatever I was given, going after it and trying to play as free as possible.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Head coach Chris Tamas knows that defenses will stack up against de Boer. However, he still wants the outside hitter to swing as much as possible, knowing that’s what it takes to win in a conference as competitive as the Big Ten.
Too much pressure
The lights shone bright for Hail to the Orange Out Friday against No. 11 Purdue (16-3, 7-2). From the jump, the pressure got to the Illini, and Tamas felt his team was a touch off pace.
“We didn’t handle the emotion of it very well,” Tamas said. “Sometimes you can manage if it’s one person or two even, but if the whole team’s just one click off, it’s gonna be difficult to win games.”
There were a few points early on that turned the momentum of the match on its head. The media timeout in the first set, where Purdue led 15-13, brought about a shift in the complexion of the match.
A touch call a few points after the break gave the Boilermakers a kill. Tamas disagreed with the call, but also didn’t see it as an excuse for how the match snowballed from there.
“I know the touch calls are hard to overturn,” Tamas said. “If that’s what set them off, that can’t be done right. They have to be able to be better than that.”
Alyssa Again-o!
On Saturday night against Michigan (14-7, 4-6), freshman outside hitter Alyssa Aguayo came alive. After a tough match against Purdue, where she recorded only two kills, Aguayo racked up 15 in a return to form.
“ I was just trying to be as aggressive as possible,” Aguayo said. “The tough moments and the high-pressure moments, I just wanted to be there, and I wanted my teammates to be able to lean on me.”
And lean on her, they did. Towards the beginning of set three, Aguayo put the team on her back. With the Illini down by one, she racked up four kills — just a fraction of her 15 — in a 5-0 run to flip the score to 9-5.
Defensive struggles
It was very difficult for the Illini to maintain any sort of rhythm, even with the home crowd backing them. Michigan and Purdue both had strong defensive showings, while Illinois struggled to tally blocks.
“I just felt that we weren’t in it defensively,” Tamas said Friday. “They took some good swings. I think we’re a lot better than what we showed tonight.”
In addition, a series of longer rallies sprang up in both matches, but were more prevalent against the Wolverines. Michigan outlasted Illinois in a majority of them, further leading to the result. Whether the Illini made mistakes or the opposition figured them out, it ended up being a long night.
“ Things just didn’t land our way,” Aguayo said. “We work really hard in practice for those long rallies and staying in there mentally. I think tonight, things just didn’t go our way in that sense.”
