Diving for the ball on a Purdue set point Wednesday night, it looked like Illinois sophomore Jennifer Beltran got her hands underneath the ball.

But from the referee chair, the official ruled that the ball hit the floor, giving the No. 11 Purdue volleyball team a 2-1 lead heading into the fourth set.

“It was on TV and they said it was out but it doesn’t mean we won that rally or won that set,” Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said.

Hambly said he doesn’t think that point changed the momentum of the match, but instead thought giving up a 24-23 lead in the third set was the difference maker, eventually leading No. 5 Illinois to a 3-1 deficit in West Lafayette, Ind.

“I thought it was an up-and-down match, we made a nice run in that set,” Hambly said. “What changed was we had a chance 24-23 and we didn’t put the ball away. … That changes the complexion of the match. We needed to execute at the end.”

The loss was not attributed to lack of effort or team connection by Illinois as it was in Saturday’s loss to Minnesota.

“I actually think that compared to the last match we had, against Minnesota, we’ve come a long way figuring out small things, whether it be team chemistry, sticking together and effort in general,” sophomore Jennifer Beltran said. “I think we definitely fought tonight for sure.”

Wednesday’s match, like the Minnesota match, however, was plagued with errors. The Illini (21-3, 10-3 Big Ten) had 34 attacking errors, 11 of which came in the second set. Illinois didn’t hit any set above .200, another stat that occurred in Saturday’s loss against Minnesota.

“We just have to work harder. I need to work harder to connect better with all the hitters, and we have to work harder in practice to make sure we have that connection down so we execute well in the match,” setter Annie Luhrsen said.

Senior Colleen Ward credited Purdue’s block and said it was difficult for the hitters to get around. Ward had 12 errors on the night but led the team with 18 kills.

Purdue (21-3, 10-3) had its fair share of errors as well, recording 11 serving errors and 28 attacking errors. However, the Illini were out-blocked 18-9 and out hit .163-.098 on the match.

Big Ten kill leader junior Ariel Turner, who averages 4.85 kills per set, led the Boilermakers with 21 kills on the night.

“She’s good, I thought we actually did a good job on, we held her to (.160),” Hambly said.

One aspect of Illinois’ loss against Minnesota that improved in Wednesday’s match was passing. Luhrsen said there was a lot more communication on the court between passers that helped minimize errors.

“We did a good job this match of just letting go of errors, which is good to see because it was something that we had an issue with,” Luhrsen said. “But I definitely think we fixed a lot of things tonight, especially to see how competitive we were out there.”