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Fighting Illini Breeze Past SDSU
In
a contest that saw just one tie in its entirety, No. 7 Illinois handily
took care of the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in the first match of
the day at the Shocker Volleyball Classic. The Fighting Illini improved
to 6-1 on the fall with the victory, while SDSU fell to 1-11 this
season.
“It was nice to get some more people into
the action,” stated head coach Kevin Hambly. “We were able to use Ali
Bastianelli a little bit more and get her going more offensively and we
got Lex out there as well, who, once she settled down, did a really
nice job. It was good to get all of those girls out there and give
Jocelynn and Jordyn some rest.”
To open the match,
Illinois jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead and never looked back, en route
to the 25-15 first set victory. UI had two seven-point runs in the
frame to secure the set. The Orange and Blue tallied 15 kills in the
frame and just three errors on 37 attacks for a .324 hitting
percentage. Michelle Strizak served up a pair of aces in the set, while
Ali Stark posted a match-best seven digs.
The only
tie of the match occurred in the second set as a Stark kill put
Illinois on the board first followed by a Strizak attack error to make
it 1-1. The Orange and Blue fired off four quick points before trading
with the Jackrabbits a few times. SDSU used a timeout at 13-5 and then
again at 18-6, but couldn’t find a way to stop Illinois. The Fighting
Illini unit went on to take the set by a mark of 25-9, the first time
holding an opponent to single-digits this season. The last time
Illinois accomplished the feat was in the NCAA Tournament on Dec. 5,
2014, when Illinois beat Murray State by the same margin.
Ali
Bastianelli opened the third set on a tear, posting two quick kills to
give Illinois a 2-0 lead that it would never be in question. The
Fighting Illini opened up a 16-7 advantage to force a SDSU timeout.
Illinois went on another run to a 22-11 lead before Katie Roustio added
the final touch with a kill to win the set 25-14.
As
a unit, Illinois hit .412 in the match, and had three players record
hitting percentages at .500 or better. Bastianelli led the effort with
a .643 outing that included nine kills on 14 attempts, Stark posted a
.583 reading with seven kills and Alexis Viliunas had one kill on two
attempts. Bastianelli’s reading of .643 is the best individual mark by
an Illinois player yet this year.
Additionally,
Roustio turned in a .440 hitting percentage with 12 kills (career best)
on 25 attempts. Katie Stadick hit .400 in the match with seven kills to
one error on 15 swings.
Jordyn Poulter started
the match at setter and recorded nine assists and then handed the job
off to Viliunas, who finished with 29 assists in her first 2015 action.
Bastianelli had the lone solo block on the day for Illinois. Stadick had a hand in all seven of the Illini’s tandem blocks.
Illinois
rattled the Jackrabbits’ serve-receive with a season best seven aces in
the contest. Stark and Strizak both tallied a pair, while Danielle
Davis, Allison Palmer and Brandi Donnelly each added one of their own.
Donnelly also led the Illinois defense with 13 digs in the contest,
followed by Davis and Stark who each tallied 11.
“Defensively
I thought we did a really nice job and handled everything well,” shared
Hambly. “All in all, the thing that I like most about the match is that
we showed SDSU respect by playing hard and competing the entire time.”
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