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Ashley Edinger needs 40 digs for 1,000 in her career
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Nov. 6, 2007
Complete Match Notes in PDF Format
ILLINOIS AT AT GLANCE
ILLINOIS (15-9, 7-7) at No. 11 WISCONSIN (20-3, 12-2), Nov. 7, 7 pm, WISCONSIN Fieldhouse, Madison, Wis.TV: Big Ten Network, taped delay 11 p.m. CT (Jay Wilson & Elizabeth Moreau)
Radio: WDWS (AM 1400) and fightingillini.com (Dave Loane & Mike Koon)
MICHIGAN (19-7, 7-7) AT illinois (15-8, 7-7), nov. 10, 7 PM, Huff Hall, Champaign
Radio: WDWS (AM 1400), taped delay following football, live on fightingillini.com (Dave Loane & Kelly McClure)
Don Hardin going for win no. 400
Illinois head coach Don Hardin needs just one more win to reach 400 for his career. He entered this season -- his 12th at Illinois -- with exactly 192 wins at both Louisville and Illinois. The win over Toledo was his 200th at Illinois and 392nd overall. His record now stands at 207-150 at Illinois and 399-226 overall.
Milestone wins
1 -- 8/29/88, Louisville 3, W. Kent. 1
100 -- 10/17/92, Louisville 3, Tulane 0
200 -- 10/12/96, Illinois 3, Indiana 1
300 -- 9/14/02, Illinois 3, UConn 0
1 at Illinois -- 9/2/96 Illinois 3, ISU 1
100 at Illinois -- 11/14/01, Illinois 3, Indiana 1
200 at Illinois -- 9/15/07, Illinois 3, Toledo 1
Road warriors: Illinois has been an anomaly with its success on the road. The Illini are 6-1 on the road in the Big Ten and 8-2 on the road overall. In Illinois' two road losses, Illinois had two match points vs. Dayton and fell to Michigan 15-13 in the fifth game. By contrast, Illinois is 4-6 at home and 1-6 at home in the Big Ten. Saturday's victory over Michigan State broke a six-match home losing streak
• Illinois has won six straight road Big Ten matches. That is the longest streak since 1992, when the Illini went 19-1 to win the conference.
• Illinois defeated No. 11 Minnesota in Minneapolis on Oct. 13, the highest seeded road victim since 2002, when the Illini knocked off then No. 6 Minnesota.
So close...
Illinois has literally been competitive against everyone. Eight of Illinois' nine losses and five of its six losses at home have gone to five games. The Illini took then No. 2 Penn State to five games on Oct. 19 after trailing 2-0.
Laura DeBruler leads freshmen nationally in kills per game Laura DeBruler moved past Florida A&M's Jovanna Blazeski into the top spot nationally among freshmen in kills per game. DeBruler is averaging 5.00 kills per game, eding Blazeski (4.97) and Texas' Juliann Faucette (4.80).Complete list on page 4.
Illinois wins longest game in school history from Wisconsin
The Illini and Wisconsin will be meeting for the second time on the Big Ten Network. The two teams debuted the first ever match on BTN with flair.
• Illinois' only non-five game loss came to then No. 9 Wisconsin at home. In that match the Illini had 11 game points in the opening frame before they prevailed 41-39, the longest game in school history. Illinois had leads in game two before the Badgers rebounded to take a competitive game two, 31-29. Wisconsin won the final two games handily.
Illinois at Wisconsin Series Notes
• Illinois leads the all-time series 37-27-1. The Badgers are on a five-match win streak. The last Illinois victory came Nov. 5, 2004, a 3-0 sweep. That ended a streak of four Illini victories in six matches vs. Wisconsin.
• Illinois' last win in Madison was Oct. 20, 1995, a 3-1 victory. The Illini took the Badgers to five games in 2004.
Got to dig the Illini: Illinois has out-dug 19 of 23 opponents this year, many by impressive margins -- 49-27 vs. IPFW, 76-52 vs. Dayton, 54-36 vs. Marquette, 56-21 vs. Southern Illinois, 53-37 vs. Iowa and 82-65 vs. Penn State. Overall the Illini have 1,514 digs (15.61) to their opponents' 1,327 (13.68).
Edinger approaching 1,000 digs
Ashley Edinger has 960 digs for her career, approaching Illinois' top ten career list. Having played just 54 matches, Edinger will be the fastest in school history to reach that mark. Tracey Marshall is Illinois' all-time digs leader with 1,426 recorded her 1,000th career dig in her 80th match.
• Edinger is on pace to break Illinois' single-season digs record. With 472 on the year, she is on pace for 590, which would break Beth Vrdsky's mark of 520 set in 2005.
Illinois single-season digs list
1. Beth Vrdsky (2005) 520 2. Ashley Edinger (2006) 488 3. Ashley Edinger (2007) 472 3. Tracey Marshall (1998) 465 5. Erin Borske (1995) 396 7. Lauren Harks (2003) 393 7. Mary Coleman (1998) 391 8. Shadia Haddad (2000) 371 9. Shadia Haddad (2001) 368 10. Mary Coleman (1995) 367
Illinois career digs list
1. Tracey Marshall (1996-99) 1,496 2. Mary Coleman (1995-98) 1,393 3. Lauren Harks (2001-04) 1,346 4. Beth Vrdsky (2003-06) 1,166 5. Sandy Scholtens (1985-88) 1,133 6. Mary Eggers (1985-88) 1,092 7. Petra Laverman (1988-90) 1,003 8. Kathleen Bazzetta (2001-04) 974 9. Shadia Haddad (1998-01) 962 10. Ashley Edinger (2006-) 960Edinger posts second best digs
• Ashley Edinger's 37 digs vs. Northwestern were the second most in a match in school history, one off the record by Petra Laverman. Edinger has five of the top ten single-match digs in school history, three of which were this year.
Illinois single-match list
1. Petra Laverman (9/30/89) 38 2. Ashley Edinger (11/2/07) 37 3. Beth Vrdsky (9/16/05) 36 4. Ashley Edinger (10/21/07) 34 5. Ashley Edinger (8/31/07) 32 Rita Schwartz (9/5/84) 32 7. Ashley Edinger (9/3/06) 31 Beth Vrdsky (11/16/05) 31 9. Ashley Edinger (9/28/88) 30 Sandy Scholtens (9/28/88)DeBruler reaches 20 kills regularly: Laura DeBruler has 14 matches with at least 20 kills this season, including seven in a row and 10 of the last 11 matches. She ranks third on Illinois' single-season list of 20-kill matches trailing only Erin Borske (19 in 1995) and Rachel VanMeter (15 in 2005). Her 14 such matches moves her into sixth on the career list. VanMeter holds the career mark with 29.
Illinois career 20-kill matches
1. Rachel VanMeter (`01-'05) 29 2. Erin Borske (`94-'95) 28 3. Tracey Marshall (`96-'99) 19 4. Mary Coleman (`95-'98) 18 5. Shadia Haddad (`98-'01) 16 6. Laura DeBruler (2007) 14 7. Bridget Boyle (`86-'89) 13 Nancy Brookhart (`86-'89) 13 9. Betsy Spicer (`97-2000) 11 Petra Laverman (`88-'90) 11DeBruler atop Big Ten kills, points
Laura DeBruler leads the Big Ten in kills per game in both all matches (5.00) and conference only matches (5.18). She also paces the league in points per game for all matches (5.45).
• Only three other Illini have ever led the conference in kills per game -- Lorna Henderson (1991), Erin Borske (1995) and Rachel VanMeter (2005). DeBruler would be just the fourth freshmen to ever lead the Big Ten in kills per game and the second straight. Penn State's Megan Hodge led the league at 4.83 kills per game last season.
DeBruler having one of Illinois' best kill seasons ever: Laura DeBruler has 485 kills on the season with still six matches remaining in the regular season. DeBruler is averaging 20.17 kills/match on pace for 605 for the year, which would be the third most in school history.
Illinois Single-Season Kills List
Named Year Kills 1. Erin Borske 1995 714 2. Rachel VanMeter 2005 672 3. Nancy Brookhart 1987 540 4. Tracey Marshall 1998 536 5. Mary Coleman 1996 504 6. Julie Edwards 1994 500 7. Shadia Haddad 2000 591 8. Laura DeBruler 2007 485 9. Rachel VanMeter 2004 483 10. Bridget Boyle 1987 482
Comparing to a legend Illinois head coach Don Hardin said, "The only other person to have this big of an impact as a freshman has her banner hanging in the rafters."
Hardin was comparing Laura DeBruler to Illinois great Mary Eggers, who was named the 1988 Honda Award winner as the National Player of the Year.
In her freshman campaign of 1985, Eggers had a team-leading 431 kills She did so in 42 matches for a 3.34 kills per game average
DeBruler is on pace to shatter those marks. DeBruler currently has 432 kills (an average of 4.91 kills per game), on pace for 589 by the end of the 30-match regular season.
Illinois sweeps Big Ten road trip for first time in four years:
Illinois has swept three straight Big Ten road weekends for six road victories in a row. Until then Illinois hadn't swept a Big Ten weekend in four seasons. The last time Illinois had won two road conference matches on the same weekend was Nov. 21-22, 2003 when the Illini won at Indiana (3-1) and Purdue (3-1).
Michigan Series Notes:
• Illinois leads the all-time series 35-18. The Wolverines have won three straight in the series. Prior to that the Illini had won seven of the previous 10 matches.
• Illinois lost its only Big Ten road match of the year in Michigan. The Illini led the match 2-1 before Michigan came back to win in five games, 15-13 in the game five.
Illinois takes No. 2 Penn State to five games
After dropping the first two games to No. 2 Penn State on Oct. 19, Illinois rallied to take games three and four before the Lions won the match in five. The Illini were the Big Ten team and still the only unranked opponent to win a game for the Lions this season. Wisconsin took Penn State to five on Oct. 21.
Illinois continues to be competitive against ranked teams
• With the victory over No. 11 Minnesota, Illinois defeats a ranked opponent for the seventh straight year. In fact Illinois has at least one win over a ranked team every year but 2000 since 1985.
• The Illini have yet to be swept this season and have taken four ranked teams to five games before falling just short -- No. 22 LSU, No. 9 Wisconsin, No. 10 Michigan and No. 2 Penn State. Illinois also lost to Dayton, a team ranked No. 17 in the latest poll, in five games.
• The Dayton match was especially close as the Illini had two match points in game four vs. the host Flyers. Dayton rebounded to take game four 31-29 and the match.
• Illinois had LSU on the ropes, before the Tigers rebounded to win in five games. In that match, the Illini bested the favored Tigers in every statistical category - attack percentage (.237-.205), kills (68-62), digs (72-65) and blocks (14-12).
Complete NCAA Freshman Kills leaders
(Listed by NCAA Overall Ranking) 15. Laura DeBruler, Illinois 5.00 16. Jovanna Blazeski, Florida A&M 4.97 25. Juliann Faucette, Texas 4.80 37. Megan York, St. Mary's (Calif.) 4.64 53. Nataly Korobkova, Kansas State 4.48 64. Krista Kelley, Santa Clara 4.41Illinois receiving votes
Illinois received three votes in this week's CSTV/AVCA coach's poll. This is the second straight week the Illini have received votes. Penn State is in its second week at number one.
Senior transfers making significant impact
With a number of career-ending injuries over the past few seasons, Illinois has been the benefit of a pair of transfers the past two seasons. Outside hitter Amy Palash, who had helped Valparaiso to the NCAA Tournament in 2005, transferred to Illinois, and right side hitter Stefanie Alde came to Illinois after playing two years at Northwestern.
• Palash has been extremely valuable with the injury to Kylie McCulley. Palash had 14 kills in 3 1/2 games filling in for McCulley in the season-opening victory over Bowling Green and had 13 kills while hitting .265 in the victory over Michigan State on Sept. 28.
• Alde missed a pair of matches with back problems, but returned on Sept. 12 with four straight double-digit kills performances and hit .500 vs. Southern Illinois and .440 at Toledo.
• Alde had a match-ending kill against her old team, Northwestern. She totaled 11 kills and hit .400 in the straight-games victory.
• Alde had 16 kills while hitting .414 in a narrow loss to Purdue.
• Alde had a career-high 20 kills while hitting .457 vs. No. 2 Penn State.
