Michigan
15-2, 3-1Big Ten
Illinois
10-3, 2-2Big Ten
Michigan Falls in Five Sets to No. 12 Illinois
10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Oct. 3, 2009
Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Cliff Keen Arena)
Score: #12 Illinois 3, #6 Michigan 2 (25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 21-25, 11-15)
Records: U-M (15-2, 3-1 Big Ten), Illinois (10-3, 2-2 Big Ten)
Next U-M Event: Friday, Oct. 9 -- at Iowa (Iowa City, Iowa), 7 p.m. CDT
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The No. 6-ranked University of Michigan volleyball team let a 2-0 set lead slip away to No. 12-ranked Illinois in a 25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 21-25, 11-15 loss on Saturday night (Oct. 3) in Cliff Keen Arena. Michigan was on fire offensively in the first two frames but struggled against a suddenly stingy Illinois defense for the remainder of the night in suffering its first conference loss of the season.
Senior Juliana Paz (Porto Alegre, Brazil/Iowa Western CC) led the Wolverine attack with a season-high 21 kills in the loss, while sophomore Alex Hunt (Granger, Ind./South Bend St. Joseph) and senior Veronica Rood (Temperance, Mich./Bedford) joined Paz in double digits with 15 and 10 terminations, respectively. Junior setter Lexi Zimmerman (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) dished out a season-best 55 assists as five Wolverines reached double-digit digs, with senior Megan Bower (Indianapolis, Ind./Cathedral) and sophomore Sloane Donhoff (Louisville, Ky./Assumption) each posting 18.
In the deciding fifth set, Michigan rallied from an 8-2 deficit as the teams switched sides, reeling off eight of the next 13 points to draw within one at 11-10. However, Illinois allowed just one more Michigan kill, capping its huge comeback with a 15-11 victory.
Clinging to a 2-1 match lead, the Wolverines fell behind early in set four as Illinois built a 17-10 lead midway through the frame. Michigan struggled to find an offensive rhythm, hitting just .125 in the set and converting on just 51 percent of its side-out opportunities in a 25-21 loss.
Set three was the beginning of the Maize and Blue woes. Up two sets to none, the Wolverines found themselves in a nip-and-tuck affair with the Illini, who grabbed a lead out of the gate and never relinquished it in a 25-20 win.
The first two sets were a stark contrast to the final three for Michigan as Paz was on fire offensively, contributing 18 of her 21 kills in the first two frames. Paz posted 10 kills in a 25-21 set-one victory for the Maize and Blue and teamed up with Hunt as the duo posted seven terminations each in a 25-22 set-two win.
The Wolverines return to action on Friday (Oct. 9) when they travel to Iowa City, Iowa, for a date with the Iowa Hawkeyes. Match time is set for 7 p.m. CDT at Carver-Hawkeye Arena with MGoBlue.com carrying a live blog and live stats.
N O T E S
• Michigan is now 1-1 in five-set matches this season, having defeated Purdue on Sept. 27.
• Michigan has dropped three straight contests to Illinois and now owns a 4-3 mark in the last seven meetings.
• Juliana Paz posted a career-high 62 attack attempts vs. Illinois, nine more than her previous best of 53 set earlier this season at Xavier University on Sept. 5.
• The Wolverines had five players reach double-digit digs for the second time this season. Sloane Donhoff (18), Megan Bower (18), Juliana Paz (15), Lexi Zimmerman (14) and Alex Hunt (11) turned the trick against Illinois. The same quintet accomplished the feat vs. Tennessee on Sept. 4.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Head Coach Mark Rosen
On dropping the five-set match to Illinois ... "It is frustrating to be up 2-0 and lose a five-gamer. It's not like we played bad. They are good and they did some things extremely well. When you play top teams like that, you have to play with urgency the whole match. I thought in set three especially we weren't quite urgent enough. We didn't take care of the opportunities we had. Then the momentum started to shift, and momentum is a very tenuous, precarious thing and when it shifts it is tough to get it back. We are good enough to get away with that against a lot of teams but not in this league. All the teams are good enough that if we don't play with urgency the entire match, they will hurt you."
On the Illinois defense shutting down U-M in the final three sets ... "I thought what hurt us most was our passing. It broke down in the last three sets. They were then able to gang-block against Juliana and Alex and we broke down system-wise. They are a very good blocking team and really good defensive team, so if you are single-option, which we had to rely on a lot tonight because they forced us out of system, you are going to struggle and that is what we saw tonight."
Contact: Matt Fancett (734) 763-4423
