Racers End NCAA Trip With Loss to #9 Illinois

Friday, December 5

Champaign, Ill.

7 p.m.

Murray State

26-6, 14-2OVC

Illinois

25-7, 16-4Big Ten

Murray State

Illinois

Photo by: Murray State Sports Information

12/5/2014 8:43:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

The road to the NCAA Championship would end in the first round for the Murray State volleyball team. The Racers have now taken a loss in the first round to Illinois the two times they have made it to the NCAA Tournament. MSU fell 0-3 (25-20, 25-9, 25-17)

Illinois (26-7) started off the first set with what looked like a spurt of home court advantage, but the Racers (26-6) would not let them just take a win. MSU was down 17-24, but took the next three points to only be trailing 20-24. Unfortunately for the Racers, the Fighting Illini only needed one point and took the first set, 25-20.

It looked like Murray State was going to take some of the momentum from the first set, but Illinois had other plans. The Fighting Illini had a 13-3 advantage in the second set and would not relinquish their lead. MSU was only able to put down seven kills on 35 attempts before falling 25-9 in the second set.

After coming out of the locker room, MSU came out ready to fight for the win in the third set. The Fighting Illini were too difficult to stop for the Racers. Illinois took a 10-3 advantage over Murray State, and would never give up that lead. Murray State continued to chip away at their advantage, but was unable to stop the #9 seed. MSU took a 4-0 run during the set to cut Illinois lead 22-13, but that wasn't enough. The Fighting Illini took the third set and the match 25-17.

Kristen Besselsen put down a team high 10 kills, while Scottie Ingram and Taylor Olden added nine and eight respectively. Sam Bedard dished out 25 assists along with one block. Ellie Lorenz led the team defensively with 11 digs. The team was able to stop Illinois with two solo blocks and two block assists for a team total of three blocks.