Within the capsule of the season, perhaps it was a moot point, but after a loss to Michigan State eliminated Illinois volleyball from tournament contention, the team pieced together a three-game win streak to finish its season.

Illinois (14-16, 8-12 Big Ten) entered fall break in need of four victories throughout that span to remain eligible for postseason play, but lost the first of its four games in fitting fashion: five sets.

“When it came time to close out the game, we lost a little bit of composure,” sophomore hitter Liz McMahon said. “Because we’ve lost so many five-set matches, our confidence isn’t always the best going into that fifth set. I think when it comes time to end the game we just try almost too hard and get outside ourselves.”

The Illini won the first two sets in that match before losing the last three. Illinois came back from an 0-2 deficit against Michigan State in the two teams’ previous match on Oct. 13.

“Bitter disappointment,” head coach Kevin Hambly said of the loss. “But also determined to continue to fight, continue to play and try to get better. I’m proud of the way they fought. Even though they were playing basically for pride, the girls played for themselves and did a great job.”

Illinois responded by stringing together three wins for the first time since the weekend before conference play started.

Illinois first bounced back against Michigan to procure a win on senior night on Nov. 17. Then on Nov. 21, against Northwestern, the Illini got the last laugh at the five-set matches that tormented them to the tune of a 4-8 record up to that point, beating the Wildcats 3-2. In that game, McMahon and redshirt freshman Jocelynn Birks set career highs in kills with 30 and 28, respectively.

The Illini ended their season with a 3-0 sweep of Iowa on Saturday. It was the Illini’s third sweep of the season, with their last one coming Sept. 15 against Central Florida.

“A lot of pressure was off (after Michigan State), so we were a lot more loose and had a lot more fun,” McMahon said. “We had senior night, which is always fun to play for our seniors, and then even like (Saturday), knowing it was our last game, we just put ourselves out there and had fun with it.”

Senior night was tough for Illinois, coming just a day after Michigan State dashed its tournament hopes.

“It’s hard to see that goal completely go out of reach, and it was hard, too, because we knew we still had three matches left, so we had to get back in the gym and keep working,” senior setter Annie Luhrsen said.

Luhrsen added that the team “had to change direction” after that loss, and the players played the final three games for themselves and for each other.

“We were just focusing … doing the best we could for every individual on this team because we all really do care about each other and we all have been working together, the five of us seniors have been together for four years,” she said. “We just wanted to succeed for each other.”

After entering the season ranked No. 7, missing the tournament could be considered a disappointing year for the Illini. Hambly liked the way the Illini finished, though, after they became ineligible for the NCAA tournament.

“They played for themselves, and they won for themselves,” he said, “which is all we’ve been trying to get them to do all season.”

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