On Oct. 19, Illinois (12-7, 7-3) swept Northwestern (13-9, 3-7) to conclude a four-game road trip and extend its win streak to five games. On Saturday, Illinois suffered its second sweep loss in as many days. It might be just a midseason slump in a competitive Big Ten Conference, but the Illini will want to get back to winning ways this week.
Illinois hits the road for its fifth-ranked match of the season. It travels to Minneapolis to face No. 20 Minnesota (16-5, 6-4) on Wednesday night.
Double sweep
This season, blocking has been Illinois’ strength, but it was substantially out-blocked in this past weekend’s losses. No. 11 Purdue recorded 12 blocks compared to Illinois’ one, and Michigan recorded 13 to Illinois’ three.
“I felt we were just a little bit out of it this weekend,” said head coach Chris Tamas on Saturday. “It could just be the grind of the season and getting into the second half of Big Ten play. And I just felt we were a little bit sluggish this weekend, and you can’t do that. If you play bad, someone’s going to expose you.”
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The Illini made 22 errors to the Boilermakers’ eight and 27 to the Wolverines’ six. Illinois will need to fix these two areas to make a run to the end of the season.
Gopher challenge
Minnesota is coming off a close 3-2 loss against Purdue and finds itself 6-4 in Big Ten play. Its other three conference losses have come against Michigan, UCLA and Oregon. From those teams, Illinois has lost to Michigan, defeated Oregon and is yet to play UCLA.
Blocking and defense will once again be key on Wednesday alongside the Illini’s ability to limit errors. The Gophers have put up 195.5 blocks this season while only committing 38 blocking errors. The Illini have the same number of errors, but just 149.5 blocks.
The Gophers also excel at service aces — recording 127 compared to the Illini’s 109. Illinois has also made 109 reception errors, while Minnesota has 93. And while Minnesota is ahead in some defensive categories, Illinois can capitalize on offense.
The Illini have 926 kills this season. The Gophers, having played two more matches, have 952. Moreover, Minnesota has allowed 975 opponent kills while Illinois has kept opponents to only 917. Being a higher octane offensive team comes with its downsides, as the Illini have committed 72 more attack errors than the Gophers.
Need more than de Boer
Redshirt sophomore outside hitter Taylor de Boer has been a lethal weapon this season, especially in Big Ten play. In conference play, she has put up 4.34 kills per set at a very efficient 0.250 hitting percentage. With 152 kills, she leads the team in Big Ten kills by a wide margin.
Freshman outside hitter Alyssa Aguayo has been de Boer’s “ol’ reliable” contributor, having put up 105 kills in conference play with a near 0.200 hitting percentage. She has produced 10 service aces while contributing on defense as well. The rest of the offense has been hit-or-miss.
“We just got to find more production from everyone,” Tamas said. “I feel like we’re hitting on two cylinders, not three or four. So, we gotta make sure that we’re firing on all cylinders, and it can’t just be relying on two or three people every match.”
On the road again
It’s only a two-game losing streak, but Illinois will want to forget about the two sweeps and continue the momentum from earlier in the season into this stretch of conference play. Tamas has talked about getting back to the grind after losses and bouncing back. Illinois has an opportunity to do that on Wednesday.
“We will talk about being in the grind,” Tamas said. “It’s got to be the one that polishes, not the one that grinds you down.”
