The drama at setter continues for the Illinois volleyball team.

Little more than a week after committing to freshman Alexis Viliunas as his setter for the foreseeable future, head coach Kevin Hambly was back shuffling his lineup, swapping senior Annie Luhrsen in for Viliunas, and vice versa, multiple times during the Illini’s loss Friday night at Wisconsin. 

Hambly had previously stated his belief that a team with two setters playing actually has no setters, but with the Illini needing any win it can get at this point in the season, the fourth-year head coach had to make changes.

“I don’t necessarily like it,” Hambly said Monday on Illini Drive. “It’s not that I like that it’s going that direction. It’s not ideal. But we needed to do it. We need wins. We need to get six wins here and we have to do whatever it takes.”

Hambly benched outside hitter Jocelynn Birks during the first set of the Wisconsin match, replacing her with sophomore Morganne Criswell until the middle of the second set. Birks has led Illinois in kills in nearly every game this season and is consistently the Illini’s go-to hitter in long rallies.

“It was an effort deal,” Hambly said. “I had to send a message. She got it. And then she changed and was way better after that.”

Hambly is in unfamiliar territory this season, with none of his previous three Illinois teams having lost more nine games and won less than 25, but he said none of the substitutions were spur of the moment decisions for him.

“(The decisions are) all tough,” he said. “But they’re educated and we’re looking at how they’re playing. We’re not just randomly doing this. We talk about it before the match and we have a plan. If certain things happen we make those changes.”

Senior Jackie Wolfe echoed that sentiment, adding that Hambly had opened competition in practice in the past week.

“We knew going into the weekend Kevin was going to do whatever it takes to win, so just be ready because he’ll be changing people up,” she said.

Hambly expects to implement a similar approach going forward, as the Illini fight not to miss out on the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2007.

“We gotta figure out who’s hot and who’s gonna help us win that night,” he said. 

Illinois stands at 10-12 with eight matches left in the season, but having played a difficult schedule and with an RPI in the top 40, Hambly hopes six more wins will get them into postseason play.

Daniel can be reached at millm1@ dailyillini.com and @danielmillermc.