It was a familiar feeling for the Illinois volleyball team Saturday night — the all-too familiar pain of a five-set loss.

Illinois was unable to convert on a match point in the fifth set and paid the price as the Buckeyes battled back to take the set and the match. The Illini outscored the Buckeyes on the night, 23-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-16, 15-17.

“We played hard, we played well. We just didn’t win it,” Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said.

“We didn’t finish at the end. We actually played the best we have, I think, in a long, long time. We just couldn’t close the deal at the end.”

Liz McMahon led Illinois in kills with 20, while Jocelynn Birks added 16 kills on .136 hitting. Despite the low hitting percentage, Hambly was pleased with his redshirt freshman’s performance.

“She was good, actually,” he said. “They tried to shut her down, and she made one hitting error the whole night. They blocked her a few times, which we’ll take that.”

Illinois dropped the first set, falling behind 12-5 after a 6-0 Buckeyes run. The Illini made a run at the end of the set, as five straight points tied the score at 22, but the momentum was stopped by Ohio State’s Kaitlyn Leary, as the junior had two kills and a block to seal the set.

The Illini used a 5-0 run to jump on the Buckeyes early in the second set, and they never relinquished control, leading all the way to a 25-16 victory to tie the match 1-1.

The third set went back and forth, with neither team able to mount a significant run. When Illinois finally created some separation with a 4-1 run to make it 19-16, Ohio State responded with a 4-1 run of its own to tie the score at 20. The teams continued trading points until the score was tied at 23, when two Mari Hole kills gave Ohio State a 2-1 set advantage.

The Buckeyes carried momentum into the fourth set, where they surged ahead, 4-1. Sensing the anxiety in his team, Hambly called a timeout. The Orange and Blue responded with a 7-1 run of their own. After Ohio State tied the set at 12, Illinois went on a 13-4 run to force a fifth and deciding game.

For an Illini team that allowed Purdue to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the fifth set just a week prior, overcoming an early error and not allowing an 0-2 fifth-set deficit to burgeon was critical. The set featured four lead changes, which was one too many for Illinois. The Illini were unable to convert after a service ace by sophomore McMahon put them in position to win the match, and Ohio State surged forward to steal the victory.

“We out hit them, we out dug them, we outplayed them in most every fashion, it just came down to two points, and we didn’t make the plays,” Hambly said.

The tournament begins now for the Illinois volleyball team.

After suffering a loss at Columbus to Ohio State, Illinois’ record has dropped to 11-15 with four games remaining — the team must finish the season at .500 if it wants to be eligible for the NCAA tournament.

Eliot can be reached at [email protected] and @EliotTweet.