The Illinois volleyball team was hoping for a big win Wednesday night against No. 11 Nebraska.

The Illini (9-12, 5-6 Big Ten) came into Lincoln, Neb., confident after knocking off No. 15 Wisconsin and ready to start what would have been Illinois’ first week-long sweep of the season. Instead the Illini lost in three sets to the Cornhuskers (16-4, 9-2) and will instead look to split the week, as they have done every week since conference play started. Illinois plays Saturday at Iowa (10-12, 1-9).

“We left some wins out there, which you can’t do,” Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly said prior to the contest. “But I think we’ve gotten a lot better.”

Illinois fought back throughout each of the first two sets, as the team’s totaled 16 tie scores and 5 lead changes in the match, but eventually Nebraska proved it was the better team, winning the match 25-21, 26-24, 25-12.

The Illini kept the first two sets with the Cornhuskers close, exchanging points back and forth throughout each set before allowing Nebraska to capitalize at the end. The third set was a different story, as Illinois only scored nine points by the time Nebraska reached 20.

The Illini were unable to stop the Cornhuskers’ Kelsey Robinson, who recorded 15 kills. The Cornhuskers hit .318 as a team and outblocked the Illini with 16 blocks to Illinois’ 6.5.

Illinois will look to turn its week and its tournament hopes around Saturday at Iowa, another venue like Nebraska’s that is tough to play in, but for a different reason.

“Going to Iowa is always tough,” Liz McMahon said. “They’re kind of the exact opposite of Nebraska, they have a really big gym but not that many people so it’s kind of hard to get energy going.”

The Illini have already played the Hawkeyes once this year, beating them in three sets at State Farm Center in late September. Hambly said although Iowa didn’t pose much of a challenge earlier in the season, Illinois is by no means taking the Hawkeyes lightly.

“They’re going to be way better than they were,” Hambly said. “That was for sure their worst match of the year; I think they were in awe of what was going on. They’re really tough at home and it’s a really tough place to play. They are quick, they have great tempo, and they have great balance offensively.”

With Illinois splitting every week of games in conference play thus far, the team knows it must get momentum and execute better throughout games in order to have success moving forward in the season.

“We’ve been competing hard and I think it’s just executing at the end,” McMahon said. “That’s something we’re going to work on until we get it.”

McMahon said that at this point in the season every game is a must-win for Illinois, but that the Illini can’t get ahead of themselves if they are to get back to their winning ways.

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