Illinois Volleyball Team Hosts NCAA Tournament First and Second Round Matches at Huff Hall
Illinois will host first and second round matches for the NCAA Volleyball Tournament this weekend.
Schedule
Friday, December, 3
4:30 pm -- Cincinnati vs. W. Kentucky
7 pm -- #8 seed Illinois vs. Austin Peay
Saturday, December 4
7 pm -- Winners of Friday’s matches
Tickets: All session tickets can be purchased in advance at the Athletic Ticket Office or by calling 866-Illini-1. Prices are $14 for reserved seats, $12 for general admission and $8 for students. Individual session tickets can be purchased at the door. Prices are $8 for general admission and $6 for students.
Practices Day Thursday: All four teams will hold an open practice for fans at Huff on Thursday. Cincinnati practices from 12-1:30 pm; Western Kentucky from 1:45-3:15 pm; Illinois from 3:30-5 pm and Austin Peay from 5:15-6:45 pm
TV/Video: All three matches will be streamed live free of charge at NCAA.com. Illinois matches will be re-air on the Big Ten Network. The Illinois-Austin Peay match will air at 10 am Saturday with Spencer Turkin and Oscar Grajeda on the call. Should Illinois win Friday, the second round match will be re-aired at 8 am on Sunday morning with Eric Steckling and Oscar Grajeda on the call.
Audio: Audio from both matches will be streamed live on fightingillini.com and WDWS (AM-1400) and WDAN (1490-AM) with Dave Loane and Mike Trame on the call.
Blog: Mike Koon will be providing a live blog via fightingillini.com throughout the tournament.
Illinois familiar to hosting NCAA
This is the 14th year that Illinois has hosted NCAA First and Second Round Matches, including the third in a row.
• Illinois is 20-3 all-time at home during the NCAA Tournament with the only losses coming to Stanford in the 1992 Regional Final, Ball State in the 1994 first round and Arizona in the 2001 second round.
More Illinois Tournament history
Illinois is participating in its 19th NCAA Tournamentsin its history, including 11 Sweet 16 appearances. The Illini are looking to go further this year. The last time Illinois reached the Regional Final was 1992 and the Illini were in the Final Four in both 1987 and 1988.
• Last season Illinois received a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Sweet 16 with home victories over IPFW (3-0) and Dayton (3-1) before falling to 12th-seed and third-ranked Hawaii in four sets.
Austin Peay makes first NCAA tourney
Friday’s opponent, Austin Peay is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Govs are champions of the Ohio Valley Conference. They are led by first-year head coach Haley Janicek. Austin Peay has three-straight 20-wins seasons under three different head coaches.
• Illinois and Austin Peay will be meeting for the second time in school history with the Illini posting a 30-14, 30-25, 32-34, 30-28 victory over the Lady Govs in the first match of the Northern Illinois Tournament on Sept. 2, 2005
Cincinnati has history at Huff Hall
• Cincinnati will be playing at Huff Hall for the third straight season. The Bearcats and Western Kentucky also played in the first round of the 2008 tournament at Huff with Cincinnati winning in five sets. Illinois defeated the Bearcats in the second round in straight sets.
• In 2009, Illinois opened the home schedule vs. Cincinnati at the State Farm Illini Classic. Illinois won that meeting in straight sets.
• Cincinnati will play at Illinois next season as well as part of the Big Ten/Big East Challenge with Louisville and Purdue.
• Illinois is 4-3 all-time vs. Cincinnati with the Bearcats defeating Illinois in five sets on Sept. 17 at the Big Ten/Big East Challenge. The Illini led the match 2-0, the second weekend playing without Laura DeBruler. Cincinnati earned its first ranking of the season after the win.
Recapping the Cincinnati match
• Cincinnati posted a 22-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-16, 15-13 victory over then-No. 5 Illinois on Sept. 17.
• Colleen Ward had 29 kills and hit .407 in the victory.
• Michelle Bartsch hit .410 with 20 kills and just four errors
• Johannah Bangert hit .438 with eight kills
• Illinois committed 18 service errors, three off the most in program history.
• Cincinnati tallied 10 aces
The Road Ahead
The winner of the Illinois sub-regional travels to Austin, Texas for the Regional Dec. 10-11. The seeded teams in the bracket are No. 1 Florida, No. 8 Illinois, No. 9 Texas and No. 16 Purdue.
• Friday’s regional semifinal matches are 5 and 7 pm CT with the championship at 8 pm on Saturday.
• If seeds hold, Illinois would meet host Texas in the semfinal. The Illini knocked off then No. 2 Texas in straight sets back on Sept. 3 in Austin. That halted a 25-match home court winning streak for the Longhorns.
• Illinois has split matches with Purdue with each school winning at home
• Colleen Ward transferred to Illinois from Florida.
• All four regional finals will be broadcast live on ESPNU
• The NCAA Final Four is at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., on Dec. 16-18. The finals are broadcast on ESPN2.
Big Ten leads tournament with eight bids, Illini played 19 matches against NCAA qualifiers
The Illini are one of eight Big Ten teams to make the field. Five of the schools will host first and second round matches with four receiving top 16 national seeds.
• Penn State, looking for its fourth straight NCAA title, received the No. 4 overall national seed and will host Niagara in the first round in the Penn State Regional.
• Minnesota received the No. 10 national seed and will host North Dakota State as part of the Washington Regional.
• Purdue received the No. 16 national seed and will host Kentucky as part of the Texas Regional. Indiana will host Miami, Fla., in the first round in a sub-regional that features No. 11 Tennessee.
• Ohio State plays Lipscomb in the first round at Dayton in the sub-regional that features No. 14 Dayton. • Michigan plays at Washington in the first round in a sub-regional that features No. 15 Hawaii.
• Northwestern plays Arizona in the first round at Cedar Falls, Iowa, in the sub-regional that features No. 5 Northern Iowa
• A total of 13 Illinois opponents made the field including non-conference foes Cincinnati, Dayton, Middle Tennessee Nebraska, and Texas. In all, Illinois played 19 of its 30 matches against NCAA Tournament qualifiers.
• The Big Ten had the most qualifiers of any conference with eight. The Southeastern Conference and the Pacific-10 Conference each have six teams in the tournament.
Recapping last year’s tournament
• Illinois began the tournament with a 25-26, 25-15, 25-12 victory over IPFW. The Illini got 15 kills and three blocks from Michelle Bartsch and 11 kills and 10 digs from Laura DeBruler. With the score 10-9 in the first set, Illinois called timeout, then out-scored the Mastadons 66-33 from there.
• Illinois dropped the first set to Dayton then battled back for a 26-28, 25-8, 25-17, 25-18 victory over the Flyers in round two. DeBruler hit .455 and Rachel Feldman set an Illinois NCAA Tournament record with 26 digs.
• The Illini took the first set from Hawaii in Palo, Alto, Calif., in the Sweet 16 round, but fell 21-25, 25-10, 27-25, 25-16. Kylie McCulley led Illinois with 14 kills. The Illini had a swing to win the third set with a 25-24 lead. The Illini came back from a 17-14 deficit. Hawaii went on to the Final Four
• Illinois played three of the Final Four teams -- Minnesota, Penn State and Hawaii.
