Nov. 10, 2009

Complete Match Notes in PDF Format

Top-five match this week in State College
Two of the nation's top-five teams square off Friday night as No. 1 Penn State hosts No. 5 Illinois. The Lions come into the match with a 90-match winning streak, the longest volleyball streak and third longest streak of any sport in NCAA history. Only Miami (Fla.) men's tennis, who won 137 straight from 1957-64 and North Carolina women's soccer, which won 92 straight from 1990-94, have done better. First serve is at 6 p.m. CST.
• The Illini are also streaking, winners of 11 straight. That is the longest Illinois win streak since the Illini won 22 straight in 1992.

Illinois plays charging Ohio State Sunday
The Illini also play at Ohio State on Sunday afternoon in Columbus. The Buckeyes enter the match winners of six of the their last eight, including a straight sets victory over No. 7 Minnesota on Oct. 31.
• The Buckeyes are one of three teams to take a set from Penn State this year, falling 25-17, 23-25, 25-15, 25-13 on Oct. 7.

Radio: Both matches will air live on fightingillini.com with Dave Loane (play-by-play) and Matt Wille (analyst) on the call. WDWS (AM-1400) will carry Friday's match tape delayed after men's basketball. Sunday's match will be aired live on the radio.

TV: The Illinois Ohio-State match will air tape delayed on the Big Ten Network at 3 p.m. CST on Sunday with Randy Rhinehart and Audrey Flaugh on the call.

Illinois remains to No. 5 in the nation
• Illinois remains No. 5 in the latest AVCA Coaches poll
• This is the highest Illinois ranking since Sept. 29, 1992, when the Illini were also at No. 5. The Illini finished the 1992 regular season sixth after reaching the Elite Eight.
• Illinois is one of four Big Ten teams ranked -- Penn State is No. 1, Minnesota is No. 13 and Michigan is No. 14. Two other opponents -- Florida State and Saint Louis are 15th and 20th, respectively.

DeBruler earns Big Ten Player of the Week honor
Junior Laura DeBruler has been named the Big Ten Player of the Week. The Downers Grove, Ill., native earns her second Player of the Week accolade this season and the seventh of her career after leading her the Illini to wins against No. 15 Michigan and Michigan State over the weekend.
The junior averaged 5.1 kills on .367 hitting, also contributing 2.6 digs and 0.7 blocks per set as Illinois extended its winning streak to 11 and reach the 20-wins milestone for the second straight year. Against the nationally ranked Wolverines, DeBruler put down 21 kills at a .283 clip, becoming the sixth player in program history to eclipse the 1,500-career kills marker. The following night against the Spartans, she tacked on 15 more hits at a .538 pace, helping the Illini maintain their hold on second place in the conference standings with a 12-2 Big Ten record.

Bangert back on top of nation's block list
Johannah Bangert moved back to tops in the nation in blocks. After posting 12 blocks vs. Michigan and eight more blocks vs. Michigan State, Bangert now has 139 blocks for the season, which translates to 1.70 blocks per set.
• Last year Bangert tallied 202 blocks, which is the second most in school history. She has 452 career blocks, just 37 shy of fifth on the all-time Illinois career list.

Illinois block sets the tone
Illinois continues to put up impressive blocks numbers as a team. • The Illini out-blocked Michigan and Michigan by a combined 27-8 in winning those two matches.
• During Big Ten play, Illinois has out-blocked opponents by a combined 162.5-86
• Illinois out-blocked Ohio State, 17-7; Michigan State 16.5-12 and 10-2; Michigan 15-3 and 17-6; Wisconsin 19-5; and Iowa 16-8.

Feldman plays well in libero debut
Illinois lost four-year starter Ashley Edinger for the year after the Michigan City, Ind., native tore her ACL vs. Purdue on Oct. 31. The Illini had just two full practices to prepare with new libero Rachel Feldman.
• Feldman came into the Nov. 6 match with Michigan with just seven career digs, but had 19 digs while successfully returning 41 serves without an error. For the weekend, Feldman had 28 digs and just one service error in 56 chances.
• Illinois has had just three liberos since the NCAA instituted the rule in 2002. Feldman's 19 are just shy of Beth Vrdsy's 20, the most in a debut at the position in school history. That match went five sets and teams played to 30 in each set back then. Ashley Edinger had 12 digs in her first career match as a freshman in 2006.