Liz McMahon’s weekend was one to remember.

A junior outside hitter, McMahon helped the Illinois volleyball team to a split on the weekend. In the loss on Friday against No. 2 Penn State,a school that recruited her out of high school, McMahon finished with 12 kills and three digs McMahon was even better in the win against No. 33 Ohio State the Big Ten school in her home state of Ohio, finishing with 18 kills and a .390 hitting percentage.

McMahon, a Liberty Township, Ohio., native,said she thought her performance against the Buckeyes was because of a number of factors, including added excitement in playing against Ohio State.

“It’s my home state. They’re familiar. It’s just fun,” McMahon said. “My brother and sister went there so now I have to go talk trash to them.”

McMahon’s performance on the weekend wasn’t a fluke though, as she has had continued success against both Penn State and Ohio State throughout her career. In Illinois’ first game versus Penn State last year, McMahon had 17 kills, and in two games against Ohio State last year, McMahon finished with 23 and 20 kills, respectively.

“I wish I could play (Ohio State) every weekend,” McMahon said when asked about how well she has played against the Buckeyes throughout her career. “It’s not hard to get up for this game mentally, and I liked the matchup I had hitting with their blockers. And then Lex (Alexis Viliunas) was really good (Sunday) about setting who was hot. That just gave me more confidence and the cycle just continued.”

Birks continues to consistently preform for Illini

Sophomore outside hitter Jocelynn Birks showed this weekend that she doesn’t need to be scoring to contribute to the Illinois volleyball team.

Birks was able to help the Illini split the weekend against tough competition in Penn State and Ohio State by not only finishing with 27 kills, 24 digs and seven blocks in two games but also helping slow down the biggest offensive threats the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes brought.

“Jocelynn had a really tough matchup because she had (Ariel) Scott against her, who’s a great blocker, and (Katie) Slay,”Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said. “When you look at the numbers that people have against those two, they’re low. We gave her a tough matchup because we needed to slow down Scott, and I thought she did a great job.”

Birks helped hold both Scott and Slay of Penn State to 12 kills each and proved to be a significant amount of trouble for Scott who only had nine kills going into the fifth set of the match. She also had a successful night of her own on offense, finishing with 13 kills and three blocks in the loss.

In the second match of the weekend, Birks had another strong defensive showing, finishing with 14 kills and four blocks while helping the Illini beat the Buckeyes.

“Workout a cure” event proves successful for Illini

In honor of breast cancer awareness month, the Illinois volleyball team held its “Workout a Cure” event Sunday against Ohio State and by most accounts the results were successful.

The Illini wore pink jerseys that were auctioned off and raised $4,765.97 (before expenses) for the Mills Breast Cancer Institute in Urbana.

“We’re all affected by someone who has cancer, so I think it’s great that we recognize this cause,” redshirt freshman middle blocker Maddie Mayers said.

With 2,658 people in attendance, most of whom wearing pink in support of the cause, the Illini were able to pull out a four-set victory over Ohio State.

“It’s really cool,” McMahon said of the event. “The person who got my jersey, I just met him out there, took a picture with him. It was just cool to be able to be a part of something bigger than this.”

Nicholas can be reached at [email protected] and @IlliniSportsGuy.