NCAA TOURNAMENT: FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS
Match 32: First Round vs. Hawaii	Friday, December 1, 2017 | 7 p.m. CT | Alaska Airlines Arena | Seattle, Wash. TV: Spectrum Sports (Hawaii Only) // Video Stream | Radio: WDWS 1400 | Livestats
First Round: Washington vs. LIU-Brooklyn	Friday, December 1, 2017 | 9:30 p.m. CT | Alaska Airlines Arena | Seattle, Wash. Video: GoHuskies.com | Livestats
Second Round	Saturday, December 2, 2017 | 9 p.m. CT | Alaska Airlines Arena | Seattle, Wash. Video: GoHuskies.com | Livestats
Related Links	NCAA Championship Central | Interactive Bracket | Printable Bracket
Full Match Notes	Illinois | Washington
Statistics	Illinois | Hawaii | Washington | LIU Brooklyn
Series History	Hawaii: Illinois trails, 1-8; Last Match: Illinois lost, 3-1, on 12/11/2009; Streak: Lost 3 | Results Washington: Series is tied, 1-1; Last Match: Illinois lost, 3-1, on 9/13/2013; Streak: Lost 1 | Results LIU Brooklyn: First meeting
Tickets	INFORMATION | ALL-SESSION TICKETS | SINGLE-SESSION TICKETS
Social Media	@IlliniVball  | #Illini  | Facebook  | @IlliniVBall  | YouTube

ILLINI EARN NCAA TOURNAMENT BERTH

The Illinois volleyball team received an at-large berth in the 2017 NCAA Division I Championship and will be traveling to Seattle, Washington, to face Hawaii in the first round of the tournament.

The Illini (21-10, 12-8 B1G) will face Hawaii (20-7, 14-2 Big West) at 7 p.m. CT in the first round of the tournament in the Alaska Airlines Arena on Friday (December 1).

Host and No. 8 seed Washington (24-7, 14-6 Pac-12) will take on LIU Brooklyn (20-9, 11-3 NEC) in the other first round matchup at 9:30 p.m. CT. The winners of each match will play at 9 p.m. CT on Saturday (December 2).

ILLINOIS VS. THE FIELD

The Illinois volleyball team has faced the other three teams at their site just 11 times in program history. 

The Illini trail in the all-time series with the Rainbow Wahine, 1-8, with the lone win coming in a 3-0 decision in Honolulu in 1992. The most recent meeting came in 2009 when UI suffered a 3-1 setback to UH in the NCAA Regionals in Stanford, Calif.

The series is tied between the Illini and the Huskies, with UI taking a 3-0 win in Las Vegas in 1985, before UW evened the series with a 3-1 victory in Champaign in 2013.

The Illini and LIU Brooklyn have never met in program history.

LAST TIME IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

Illinois is making its 24th overall appearance in the NCAA Tournament and their eighth of the last 10 seasons. The Illini own a 38-23 record all-time in postseason play and have advanced to Regionals on seven occasions since 2008, including a run to the National Championship match in 2011.

The Illini's last NCAA Tournament appearance came in 2015, when UI advanced to their 16th regional in program history. Illinois took a straight-sets win over Southern Illinois in the opening round and a 3-1 victory over host and No. 15 seed Louisville in the second, before falling to No. 2 seed Minnesota in a 3-0 setback in the NCAA Des Moines Regional.

LAST TIME OUT

The Illinois volleyball team finished the 2017 regular season on a high note, earning a straight-sets win over Iowa on Wednesday for Senior Night, before taking a five-set victory at Ohio State on Saturday night. 

Donnelly led all players with 17 digs in her final match at Huff Hall, while helping to hold the Hawkeyes to a .070 hitting percentage.

As a team, the Illini registered a .316 attack clip, with junior Ali Bastianelli leading the way with a match-high 13 kills on a .550 hitting percentage to go along with three blocks. Sophomore Jacqueline Quade joined her in double figured with 10 kills, while junior Blayke Hranicka added nine kills on a .692 attack clip and a match-high five stuffs. 

Freshman Megan Cooney led four Illini hitters in double figures against the Buckeyes with 13 kills on a .435 hitting percentage, while Quade and redshirt-sophomore Beth Prince each totaled 12 kills and Bastianelli added 10 in the win.

Junior Jordyn Poulter turned in her 21st career double-double and 11th this season with 46 assists and 15 digs.

Bastianelli led all players with seven blocks, while Cooney added four on the night.

Defensively, sophomore Caroline Welsh equaled a career-high with a team-high 16 digs, with Donnelly also contributing 14 in the win.

ILLINI QUARTET EARN BIG TEN POSTSEASON HONORS

The Illinois volleyball team had four players honored when the Big Ten Conference announced its postseason awards on Tuesday (November 28), as juniors Jordyn Poulter and Ali Bastianelli repeated as All-Big Ten selections, rookie Megan Cooney was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and redshirt-sophomore Beth Prince was tabbed as Illinois' Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient.

It is the second-straight season the Illini have had two honorees on the All-Big Ten team after the junior duo also earned the accolades a season ago. Poulter and Bastianelli also become the 13th and 14th players in program history to repeat as all-conference selections and the first since Jocelynn Birks was a three-time honoree in 2015.

BASTIANELLI ONE OF B1G'S TOP BLOCKERS

One of the premier blockers in the nation, junior Ali Bastianelli is the NCAA active career leader with a 1.59 blocks per set average. 

With 543 total blocks in her three seasons at Illinois, Bastianelli ranks in the top 10 of active career leaders in the NCAA, sitting eighth overall and is the third-highest Big Ten player behind Briana Holman of Nebraska (616) and Penn State's Haleigh Washington of Penn State (551).

Bastianelli is also just one of five players in the Big Ten with at least 500 career blocks and 500 career kills. 

ILLINI IN THE POLLS

In the most recent NCAA volleyball RPI, the Fighting Illini volleyball team held strong in the top 30 and sit at No. 26 in the newest rankings. 

After debuting at No. 24 in the season's first RPI on October 2, the Illini reached their season-high of No. 19 on October 16.

The Illini have also appeared in the receiving votes section of the AVCA Coaches Top 25 poll for 13-straight weeks after entering the rankings on September 4.

ILLINI IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS

The Illini continued their strong blocking game and rank 13th in the NCAA and first in the Big Ten in blocks per set at a 2.91 clip as well as ninth in total blocks (328.5) and 17th in hitting percentage (.278). 

Individually, junior Ali Bastianelli ranks fourth in the nation with 1.59 blocks per set, fifth with 175 total blocks and is 25th with a .388 hitting percentage.

Junior Jordyn Poulter also ranks 37th with a 10.83 assists per set average and is 34th with 1,224 total helpers, while senior Brandi Donnelly sits 106th with 4.48 digs per set nationally.

SUPER SENIOR BRANDI DONNELLY

In her time in the Orange and Blue, senior Brandi Donnelly has made a place for herself in the Illini record books and two weeks ago she moved into second place in the program's history for career digs. Donnelly currently owns 1,985 digs, with former great Jennifer Beltran (2010-13) holding the record with 2,220 digs in her four years.

One of the most durable Illini to ever suit up, Donnelly had started in all 115 matches the Illini had played in until being sidelined with an injury on October 6 against Purdue. 

She returned to action on November 1 against Northwestern and led the Illini with 14 digs in her first match back at libero. Since her return, Donnelly has averaged an impressive 5.29 digs per set.

In her four years, Donnelly has seen action in 447 of 449 sets she has suited up for, missing only two sets during her freshman campaign. The only matches Donnelly has not seen action in are this season's seven matches when she was out with an injury. 

POULTER REACHES 3,000 CAREER ASSISTS

The quarterback of the Illini offense since she arrived on campus in 2015, junior Jordyn Poulter entered the top 10 in career assists earlier this season and with 52 helpers in a win over Iowa on October 20 became just the eighth player to reach 3,000 assists in program history. 

She currently ranks eighth all-time with 3,502 helpers, with  Betsy Eiserman (1999-02), who owns 3,578 assists in seventh place, next in Poulter's path. Melissa Beitz (1996-99) ranks first in program history with 5,797 assists from 1996-99.

BLOCKIN' BASTIANELLI IN THE RECORD BOOKS

In just three seasons, junior Ali Bastianelli has etched her named in the Illini record books and with eight blocks against No. 5 Minnesota on October 25, the Marysville, Mich., native became just the sixth player in program history to reach 500 career total blocks. She currently sits fifth with 543 stuffs and is just five blocks away from entering in a tie for fourth with Anna Dorn (2010-14), while former player and director of operations Johannah Bangert owns the program record with 653 blocks from 2007-10.  

Bastianelli has also entered the top 10 for career blocks assists this season and currently sits in third place with 496. Anna Dorn (2010-14) sits 34 block assists away in second place with 530, while Bangert also holds the career record for block assists at 613.

POULTER & QUADE DOUBLE UP

Together junior Jordyn Poulter and sophomore Jacqueline Quade own all but one of the Illini's 15 double-doubles this season, with the setter leading the way with 11. Quade owns three for her sophomore season, while senior Brandi Donnellu earned her first-career double-double in a win over  then-No. 7 Minnesota on November 18. 

In her three seasons in Champaign, Poulter has totaled 21 career double-doubles, while Quade has tallied four in her two years in the Orange and Blue. 

POULTER CHASING PROGRAM'S 13TH TRIPLE-DOUBLE

Along with her 21 career double-doubles, junior Jordyn Poulter has come close to notching the program's 13th triple-double on multiple occasions, including coming within one kill of the feat on November 18 against then-No. 7 Minnesota. Poulter came up just short as she totaled 50 assists, 17 digs and nine kills on a .750 hitting percentage.

She came within three blocks of the mark with 47 assists, 12 digs and seven blocks – all match-highs - in a win over Indiana on October 7. 

She then turned in one of her best performances of the season against No. 7 Nebraska and was just two blocks shy with 52 assists, 14 digs and eight blocks in the match.

Poulter again flirted with history when the junior registered a career-high 11 kills on a .529 hitting percentage, 52 assists, five digs and three blocks at Michigan on November 11. 

TAMAS NAMED EIGHTH VOLLEYBALL HEAD COACH

Following the departure of former head coach Kevin Hambly to Stanford in January, Director of Athletes Josh Whitman selected Chris Tamas as the new head coach of the Fighting Illini volleyball program on February 10, 2017.  He is the eighth head coach in the history of the program.

Tamas came to Illinois following many years learning from some of the game's great coaches, including John Cook at Nebraska and former U.S. National Team coaches Hugh McCutcheon and Ron Larsen. In all, Tamas is in his ninth year of collegiate coaching including two years at Nebraska, two years at Cal Poly, two years at Minnesota and two years at UC-Riverside.

Tamas is a 2003 graduate of the University of the Pacific with a degree in sports sciences. He was a four-year starter for the Tigers and a unanimous AVCA All-American first team selection and team MVP during his 2003 senior season. In four years with the U.S. Men's National Team (1999, 2003, 2005-06), Tamas made 34 appearances, and, in 1999, helped the squad to a silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Havana. As national team captain in 2003, Tamas helped lead the United State to a bronze medal at the World University Games in Daegu, South Korea.

A training camp invitee for the U.S. squad that eventually captured the 2008 Olympic gold medal, Tamas also helped U.S. teams to silver at the 2005 World Grand Champions Cup in Japan and, as a setter, to a gold at the 2006 NORCECA Championships in Mexicali, Mexico.

As a professional, Tamas competed for six years overseas with clubs Protect Eye Orion (Netherlands), Antigos Alunos (Portugal), Real Grupo (Spain), Erdemir (Turkey), Dionysos (Cyprus) and Isku (Finland). In Finland and Cyprus, Tamas helped his clubs to national cup championships.