Match Preview: Penn State Women’s Volleyball vs. Illinois
The last time Penn State and Illinois played it was throwback night at Rec Hall, this time around the No. 11-ranked Nittany Lions will look to throw their performance back to that last matchup that resulted in a sweep over the Fighting Illini.
That performance included a 15-kill effort from Kashauna Williams and a 10-kill effort from Alexa Markley, the highest total of her freshman campaign.
Since then, Williams has continued to lead the Nittany Lions in the kill category posting 228 thus far. The graduate student from California is the lone Nittany Lion to record over 200 kills this season as Zoe Weatherington and Allie Holland trail behind her with 176 and 139 respectively.
As for the Fighting Illini, leading the charge for them in that match was Brooke Mosher. While she may have finished first on the team in kills for that match, Mosher ranks third on the team this season with 124 kills.
Mosher trails the outside hitter duo of Raina Terry and Kayla Burbage. Terry is leading the team in her junior year with 282 kills, while Burbage is putting together a sophomore campaign where she ranks second on the team with 157 kills.
Since that match, the two teams have posted opposite records with the Nittany Lions holding the winning one.
The Nittany Lions would be swept in the match following the one against Illinois, but have recovered since then and come into this match now on a three-match win streak with wins over Iowa, Maryland and Rutgers.
That same Rutgers team gave Illinois its only victory in the four matches since their 3-0 loss to Penn State. After that, the Fighting Illini dropped three-straight matches, all by way of sweeps to Minnesota, Ohio State and Nebraska.
With those victories for Penn State and those losses for Illinois in the rearview mirror, both teams wrapped up their first halves of Big Ten play. The blue and white sit in fifth in the conference while Illinois ranks in the bottom half at tenth.
Before they could wrap up the first half of the Big Ten slate, the Nittany Lions received one more honor as Seleisa Elisaia was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week. Elisaia recorded a career-high 55 assists versus Maryland while also having eight digs. She also added another 33 assists against Rutgers in the following match.
The transfer from CSU Bakersfield had 35 assists against Illinois in the earlier three-set match, and has also been a force on the block for Penn State.
Elisaia ranks third on the Nittany Lions with 66 blocks. She is behind just Holland, who leads the team with 90 blocks, and Taylor Trammell, who has 76 blocks.
This trio has led to Penn State being ranked fifth in the nation in blocks per set at an average of 2.84.
But, one of the few things that the Fighting Illini will want to repeat in this match will be their ability to out-block the Nittany Lions. Previously, the blocks favored Illinois 10-7 and were a reason that those three sets were competitive throughout.
It will be up to Kennedy Collins, Hinton and Burbage to do that this time around. Collins leads the team with 51 blocks, while Hinton and Burbage trail her at 46 each.
The second and final regular season meeting between these two teams is set to begin at 7 p.m. in Champaign, Illinois.
Justin Ciavolella is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email jtc5751@psu.edu.
