|
Women's Volleyball
Penn State brings NCAA record win streak to Huff
Nov. 11, 2008
Champaign, Ill. - Complete Match Notes in PDF Format
ILLINOIS AT AT GLANCEIllinois tries to stop NCAA record win streak again: On Friday, Illinois welcomes top-ranked Penn State to Huff Hall. The Lions have been dominating this season, having been ranked number one all season. PSU is 26-0 and has yet to drop a set this year. The defending national champions come into Huff with a 52-match win streak, tying the NCAA record set by USC. Ironically, it was the Women of Troy who brought that win streak to Huff Hall on Sept. 11, 2004. The Illini, down 2-1, rallied for a thrilling five-set victory in front of over 3,000. Now four years later, Penn State brings in the same win streak to Huff where the Illini will attempt to halt it again at 52. Illini entered the USC match ranked 16th. They enter this week ranked 17th. Illinois took PSU to five sets last year: In going 34-2 last season, Penn State played in five five-set matches, two vs. national runner-up Stanford, two vs. nationally ranked Cal Poly and Wisconsin and one vs. unranked Illinois. The Illini were competitive with the second-ranked Lions in every set in a 30-28, 30-25, 19-30, 28-30, 15-10 defeat. Laura DeBruler had 27 kills for the Illini while Penn State freshman Arielle Wilson finished the night with four kills in 15 attacks. McCulley has big debut vs. PSU in 2006: The Illini have been competitive with the Lions in recent years in Champaign, including a 34-32, 30-23, 32-30 defeat on Oct. 13, 2006. In that match, freshman Kylie McCulley, filling in for the injured Kayani Turner, at outside hitter, made her first start for Illinois. She tallied 19 kills and hit .265 in her first collegiate start. Illinois vs. ranked teams Illinois remains 6th in the RPI 1 Penn St. 26-0 2 Stanford 21-3 3 Nebraska 23-1 4 Minnesota 20-6 5 Texas 19-3 6 Illinois 19-6 7 Purdue 20-6 8 Washington 19-4 9 St. Louis 22-4 10 Oregon 20-5 11 Florida 20-2 12 Tulane 22-5 13 California 20-4 14 Utah 19-5 15 Colorado St. 20-3 16 Hawaii 21-3 17 Kansas St. 21-5 18 Southern California 14-8 19 Wichita St. 26-0 20 San Diego 19-3More on Penn State: Penn State has a chance to go in the history books as the greatest team of all time if the Nittany Lions can run the table. The statistics bear that out. The Lions lead the nation with a whopping .395 attack percentage, 56 points better than second place Texas. They also lead the nation in blocks at 3.26 per set, .22 better than second place Utah. No team has taken a set from Penn State and of the 78 sets won, in only 15 has an opponent reached 20. DeBruler named Big Ten Player of the Week; reaches 1,000 kills DeBruler became just the second player in Illinois history to eclipse the 1,000 career kill mark in her first two seasons, now with 1,023. The sophomore recorded two double-doubles on the road over the weekend, first with 22 kills and 14 digs in a 3-1 win over Iowa, followed by a 29-kill, 13-dig performance in a five-set match against No. 17 Minnesota. The Downers Grove, Ill., native leads the conference with 16 overall double-doubles and eight in Big Ten play. She is also the only player in the conference to rank in the top 10 in kills and digs per set. For the weekend, DeBruler averaged 5.7 kills per set on .305 hitting with 27 total digs and five total blocks for an average of 6.06 points per set. This is the fourth time in her career and the second this season that DeBruler has been honored. She was not only Big Ten, but also National Player of the Week on Sept. 1 after leading the Illini to a come-from-behind victory in the State Farm Illini Classic. She also earned the honor twice as a freshman. Illinois has five Big Ten Player of the Week honors this season, including four in the past five weeks - DeBruler (Sept. 1), Johannah Bangert (Defensive POW on Oct. 13) and Ashley Edinger (Defensive POW on Oct. 27 and Nov. 3). This marks just the third time in school history that the Illini have earned five Big Ten Player of the Week honors in a single season, doing so in both 1986 and 1992. Indiana vies to make NCAA case: The Big Ten Conference has had at least six teams in the NCAA Tournament every year since 1997 and twice (1999 and 2002) the conference has supplied eight teams. At this point five Big Ten teams have at least 19 wins on the year. That means the race is on to perhaps fill a couple more spots. Indiana is one of those teams in line to pick up a bid if it can close out the season strong. The Hoosiers are 14-12, but a respectable 31st in the RPI. That includes a win over nationally-ranked Minnesota. They will try to improve their prospects this weekend at Purdue and Illinois Short, DeBruler square off DeBruler has the edge in conference only matches leading Short 4.81-4.37 in kills and 5.31-4.99 in points per set. • The match-up with the Hoosiers also pits two of the top blockers in the country in Illinois' Johannah Bangert and Indiana's Ashley Benson. Bangert leads the country at 1.57 blocks per set while Benson is eighth at 1.46. • DeBruler is trying to become the first Illinois player ever to repeat as the conference's leader in kills. Bangert, meanwhile, is trying to become the first Illinois player to lead the league in blocks since 1984. Edinger breaks digs record: Ashley Edinger became Illinois' all-time digs leader on Nov. 1 in a win over Ohio State. Edinger holds two of the top three digs seasons in Illinois history, including 564 last year. She also topped 1,000 digs in just her 57th match of her career. Tracey Marshall, who was Illinois' all-time digs leader with 1,426, recorded her 1,000th career dig in her 80th match. She also had 35 digs vs Dayton, her sixth 30+digs match of her career. With 427 digs, Edinger is on pace for 529 this year, which would give her three of the top four single-season digs seasons in school history. Illinois career digs list 1. Ashley Edinger 1,479 2. Tracey Marshall 1,426 3. Mary Coleman 1,393 4. Lauren Harks 1,346 5. Beth Vrdsky 1,166 6. Sandy Scholtens 1,133 7. Mary Eggers 1,092 8. Petra Laverman 1,003 9. Kathleen Bazzetta 974 10. Shadia Haddad 962Edinger nearing Big Ten digs list: Edinger now has 1,479 digs for her career on pace for 2,122, which would be fourth best in Big Ten history. Big Ten's All-Time Digs List 1. 2,791 Paula Gentil, MINN 2002-05 2. 2,182 Jocelyn Wack, WIS 2004-07 3. 2,178 Stesha Selsky, MICH 2004-07 4. 1,957 Kaleena Walters, PSU 2002-05 5. 1,931 Janet Moylan, IOWA 1987-90 6. 1,920 Susan Wohlford, WIS 1988-91 7. 1,658 Christie Gardner, NU 2002-05 8. 1,632 Jenny Rees, IOWA 1987-90 9. 1,572 Stacey Gordon, OSU 2001-04 10. 1,564 Becky Kanitz, PUR 1985-88Bangert leads nation in blocks For the third week in a row, Illinois middle blocker Johannah Bangert leads the nation in blocks at 1.57 digs per set. Bangert not only leads the Big Ten in blocking in overall matches, but also with a 1.70 blocks per set average in conference matches. Michelle Bartsch is tied for fourth at 1.44. The only other player in school history to lead the conference in blocks was Denise Fracaro in 1984. Bangert and the record book 2008 NCAA Division I Block Leaders Name Blocks Average 1 Johannah Bangert, Illinois 151 1.57 2 Ashten Stelken, UNI 141 1.55 3 Emily Underwood, Memphis 169 1.52 4 Anna Breyfogle, Baylor 120 1.52 5 Danielle Hepburn, Clemson 136 1.49 6 Christa Harmotto, Penn St. 111 1.48 7 Lecia Brown, Louisville 135 1.47 8 Ashley Benson, Indiana 145 1.46 9 Foluke Akinradewo, Stanford 115 1.46 10 Ashley Asberry, Middle Tenn. 146 1.45
Illini block sets tone To put the block surge in perspective, last season Illinois ranked 10th in the Big Ten at 2.23 blocks per, set keeping in mind that last year the teams played to 30 instead of 25. 2008 NCAA Division I Team Block Leaders Team SP BS BA BPS 1 Penn St. 78 56 397 3.26 2 Utah 85 38 440 3.04 3 Louisville 93 86 384 2.99 4 Colorado St. 86 45 424 2.99 5 Clemson 91 74 377 2.88 6 Idaho 95 42 461 2.87 7 Kentucky 97 62 425 2.83 8 Minnesota 93 89 342 2.80 9 Memphis 111 55 507 2.78 10 UNI 92 43 419 2.74 11 New Mexico St. 89 24 435 2.71 12 Illinois 96 23 472 2.70 13 Oregon 87 24 416 2.67 14 Middle Tenn. 102 47 447 2.65 15 Cal Poly 87 37 383 2.63 Bazzetta moves up assists charts Illinois all-time assists leaders Name Assists Matches Years 1. Melissa Beitz 5,797 114 1996-99 2. Disa Johnson 5,550 141 1984-87 3. Barb Winsett 4,457 128 1987-90 4. Lizzie Bazzetta 3,702 109 2005-08 4. Merrill Mullis 3,661 119 1990-93 6. Betsy Eiserman 3,578 86 2000-02
Laura DeBruler making history DeBruler posted the first 20-20 performance by an Illini in six years with 24 kills on a career-high 80 swings to go along with 22 digs. The last Illinois player to accomplish that was Sue Webber, who had 22 kills and 26 digs vs. Minnesota on Oct. 12, 2002. DeBruler followed that with 21 kills and 15 digs in a four-set victory over Iowa and 26 kills and 16 digs vs. Northwestern DeBruler now has 11 20-kill matches this season, including a 31-kill performance vs. no. 11 Oregon. That gives her 26 20-kill matches for her career, which moves her to third place on the Illini's all-time list. 2008 NCAA Division I Kills Leaders Name Blocks Average 1 Yarimar Rosa, Florida Int'l 549 5.18 2 Mackenzie Angner, SDSU 459 4.99 3 Jeanne Fairchild, New Mexico 402 4.79 4 Yun Yi Zhang, Temple 452 4.76 5 Angie Porché, Valparaiso 470 4.65 6 Erica Short, Indiana 460 4.65 7 Laura DeBruler, Illinois 446 4.65 8 Meagan Schoenrock, NIU 430 4.57 9 Burgandy McCurty, Siena 455 4.50 10 Haley Larsen, Idaho 425 4.47 Illinois career 20-kill matches 1. Rachel VanMeter (`01-'05) 29 2. Erin Borske (`94-'95) 28 3. Laura DeBruler (2007-08) 26 4. Tracey Marshall (`96-'99) 19 5. Mary Coleman (`95-'98) 18 6. Shadia Haddad (`98-'01) 16 7. Bridget Boyle (`86-'89) 13 Nancy Brookhart (`86-'89) 13 9. Betsy Spicer (`97-2000) 11 Petra Laverman (`88-'90) 11 McCulley posts second 20-20 of the season
|
