No. 7 Illinois sweeps Wichita State volleyball

Illinois’ volleyball team isn’t tough to prepare for from a strategic standpoint. Like a lot of top-10 teams, the Illini throw sets to high-flying attackers and let them pound away.

Physically, well, that’s another matter.

No. 7 Illinois swept Wichita State (25-19, 25-13, 25-13) to win the Shocker Volleyball Classic on Saturday night at Koch Arena. WSU finished second, but a distant second behind the Illini, who controlled the match and gave the crowd no reason to try to influence the atmosphere.

“We can’t even simulate their hitters in our practice,” WSU senior Katie Reilly said. “We’re not that big on the block, and that’s just how it is. They just are big and have athletes who can go up and swing.”

WSU’s offense staggered through most of the match fighting to accumulate more kills than errors. The Shockers (7-4) finished with a season-low .038 attack percentage, totaling 25 kills and 21 errors. The Shockers led 1-0 in the first set and 1-0 in the third before spending the rest of the match tied or trailing.

The bigger Illini blockers forced the Shockers into six attack errors in each of the first two sets, taking away or increasing the difficulty of slides and quick-hitting sets to the middles. The standards that carried WSU through the tournament’s four previous matches weren’t as effective against Illinois (7-1).

“They keep it simple for the right reasons,” WSU coach Chris Lamb said. “They trust that their serve-and-passing game can keep them in a match with just about anybody. I think they trust that their setter can make great decisions and locate.”

Illinois deftly handled most of WSU’s serves and its counters disrupted WSU’s attack, leaving it off-balance and defensive swings. Setter Emily Hiebert spent much of the match scrambling after passes, unable to get WSU the quick sets near the net that it thrives on.

“When we were in system, I think we got a lot of really good swings,” Reilly said. “Anytime we got pulled off the net, our bad-ball swings were nowhere near as good as theirs, and that’s how the game went.”

Mikaela Raudsepp came off the bench to lead WSU with seven kills. Middles Abbie Lehman and Katy Dudzinski each finished with five.

Jocelynn Birks and Michelle Strizak both had 14 kills for the Illini. Tournament MVP Katie Stadick hit .533 and totaled nine kills.

Fortunately for WSU, it accomplished much in its first four matches of the weekend, including Friday’s 3-2 win over No. 21 Kentucky. While the Wildcats went 1-2 at Koch Arena, Lamb believes it will help should the Shockers need points from the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

“This will really help us, statistically, down the road,” Reilly said. “We accomplished what we needed to do.”

Lamb added Illinois late, turning the field into a six-team affair, and tested his team with five matches in three days.

“This was about us getting a chance to face a great program, great athletes,” he said. “I’m very satisfied with our movement forward. Serving and passing is going well against great teams and I think our players are learning they can score, maybe not against Illinois, but we scored against other good teams.”

Early Saturday, Wichita State defeated Texas State 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-18).

Reilly and Lehman both had 11 kills for WSU and Katy Duzinskiand and MaryAshton Floyd both added 10. WSU hit .456 for the match Reilly, Lehman and Dudzinski didn’t commit an attack error. Lehman finished with an attack percentage of .786, Dudzinski a career-high .714 and Reilly .611.

Reilly, Lehman and Hiebert were WSU’s representatives on the all-tournament team. Illinois’ Brandi Donnelly was joined by MVP Stadick and Birks. Others were Ashley Beaner of South Dakota State, Jordan Kohl of Texas State, Jenna Radtake of Northern Illinois, Darian Mack and Kaz Brown of Kentucky.

This story was originally published September 12, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "No. 7 Illinois sweeps Wichita State volleyball."