Lincoln – The No. 13 Nebraska volleyball team (11-6, 5-3 Big Ten) fell to No. 15 Illinois (14-5, 6-2 Big Ten) at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday afternoon, 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-27, 21-25).

Alicia Ostrander had a career-high 19 kills to lead the Huskers. Kadie Rolfzen had 12 kills, and Amber Rolfzen had 11 kills and 13 digs. Cecilia Hall had six kills and eight blocks, while Meghan Haggerty had six kills and five blocks. Mary Pollmiller added six kills with her 44 set assists. Justine Wong-Orantes had 22 digs.

Illinois’ Morganne Criswell had a season-high 21 kills, while Jocelynn Birks, the Big Ten leader in kills per set in conference play, had 19. Alexis Viliunas had 56 assists.

Illinois narrowly outhit Nebraska .228 to .224. Both teams had 14 blocks and 68 digs. 

Illinois took set one, 25-23, coming back from a 20-18 deficit to take a 21-20 lead after a Birks kill. The Huskers tied it up at 22-22 on a kill by Hall, but a Katie Stadick kill and block with Viliunas gave Illinois a 24-22 lead, forcing a Husker timeout. After Illinois let Nebraska within one via a service error, Criswell finished off the set with a shot to the back row. 

The Huskers led 7-4 in set two but let Illinois go on a 4-0 run to gain an 8-7 lead. With the set tied 16-16, Illinois committed a service error and Ostrander killed to make it 18-16 and force an Illinois timeout. Nebraska never allowed Illinois to draw even again in the set. The Huskers separated from a 19-18 lead with a 4-0 run with two kills by Kadie Rolfzen and a block by Hall and Amber Rolfzen to make it 23-18. Illinois fought off three set points, but the Huskers finally ended it at 25-21 on a kill from Hall right down the middle. 

Set three was back-and-forth the whole way. The Illini claimed a three-point lead at 18-15, but the Huskers clawed back with a dump by Pollmiller, a kill by Ostrander and then an Ostrander/Hall block to even it at 18-18. Illinois got back-to-back kills by Criswell to go up 23-21, and another Criswell kill gave the Illini set point at 24-22. Nebraska came back to tie it on kills by Haggerty and Kadie Rolfzen. With the set tied at 25-25, Liz McMahon won a long rally for Illinois, and the Huskers misfired to give Illinios the edge in the match with a 27-25 victory. 

Set four began with a 4-0 Illinois run, and the Illini extended the lead to 10-4, forcing the Huskers to use their second and final timeout of the set. Criswell had two blocks and a kill during a 3-0 spurt to put the Illini up 10-4. Trailing 17-11, the Huskers put together a furious rally to pull within 19-17 and force an Illini timeout. Haggerty had a kill and two blocks along the way. But the Huskers could get no closer, as Illinois pulled away to the 25-21 win. 

Nebraska is on the road for the next four matches, beginning at Minnesota on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. That match will be on BTN.​

The No. 13 Nebraska volleyball team hosts No. 15 Illinois on Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. Both teams enter the match with 5-2 conference records and are tied for third place in the Big Ten standings. The Huskers will be playing their 11th home match of the season, and seven of those have been against teams ranked or receiving votes. Saturday’s match is the American Red Cross’s “Pass the Bucket” match. An autograph session with Husker players will take place after the match on the northwest concourse at Devaney.

Media Information
Saturday’s match will be streamed live on the Internet at ESPN3.com. It will air tape-delayed on TV on Sunday at Noon on ESPN2. Fans can also listen to the action with John Baylor and Lindsay Peterson on the 25-station Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and The Wolf 93.3 FM in Omaha. Fans inside and outside the state of Nebraska will also be able to catch the live audio feed on Huskers.com for free. Live stats will be available at Huskers.com as well.

Series History
The Huskers are 19-5-1 all-time against Illinois and have won eight in a row in the series dating back to 1993. Illinois last defeated the Huskers on Dec. 10, 1992, 3-0 in Champaign. Nebraska has swept three matches in a row, including two last season. NU beat Illinois 25-20, 25-14, 25-22 on Sept. 28 in Champaign. Kadie Rolfzen had 14 kills, and Cecilia Hall had four kills and eight blocks. The Huskers then defeated the Illini 25-21, 26-24, 25-12 in Lincoln on Oct. 30. Kadie Rolfzen had 13 kills and 11 digs. Hall had another big match with five kills and a career-high 11 blocks.

Last Time Out
The No. 13 Nebraska volleyball team made quick work of Northwestern on “Pink Night,” sweeping the Wildcats 3-0 (25-12, 25-22, 25-13) on Wednesday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Huskers improved to 11-5 overall and 5-2 in Big Ten action, while Northwestern dropped to 13-5 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten. The Huskers outhit Northwestern .290 to .000, the lowest a Husker opponent has hit this season. Alicia Ostrander led a balanced Husker attack with 12 kills, her third straight match with double-digit kills and seventh in eight matches. Ostrander hit a career-best .440 on the night. Kadie Rolfzen had nine kills and 13 digs while hitting .500. Meghan Haggerty had five kills and six blocks, while Cecilia Hall had five kills and four blocks. Mary Pollmiller had 28 assists.

Scouting the Illinois Fighting Illini
No. 15 Illinois is 13-5 overall and 5-2 in the Big Ten after scratching out a 3-2 win at Iowa on Wednesday night, 27-29, 25-12, 25-23, 19-25, 15-11. The Fighting Illini have won nine of their last 11 matches, including a 3-1 upset at Penn State last weekend. Jocelynn Birks averages 4.08 kills per set on the season to rank third in the Big Ten, but she leads the league in conference matches only with 4.52 kills per set. Liz McMahon adds 3.27 kills per set this season. Brandi Donnelly is sixth in the conference in digs (4.32 per set), and Katie Stadick is third in blocks overall (1.37 per set) and first in blocks in conference play (1.58 per set). The Illini are second in the conference in assists (13.38 per set) and third in blocks (2.65 per set). 

Up Next
Nebraska is on the road next week for a pair of matches against ranked opponents. The Huskers visit No. 23 Minnesota on Wednesday, Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m., then travel to No. 5 Wisconsin for a 4 p.m. match on Saturday, Oct. 26.

Noting the Huskers
• Nebraska held Northwestern to a .000 hitting percentage on Wednesday. It marks the lowest a Husker opponent has hit since the Huskers held Fairfield to a .000 hitting percentage on Dec. 6, 2013 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. 
• Nebraska ranks second in the Big Ten with 2.84 blocks per set. The Huskers had a season-high 18 against Ohio State on Oct. 4, matching the most since Sept. 11, 2010 when NU had 19 blocks against Illinois. Meghan Haggerty is fifth in the Big Ten with 1.29 blocks per set. The Huskers have outblocked or matched their opponent in blocks in eight straight matches. 
• Kadie Rolfzen leads the Huskers with 3.53 kills per set and ranks fifth in the Big Ten. The 2013 third-team AVCA All-American has four of Nebraska’s six double-doubles this year and has 15 or more kills seven times this season.
• Alicia Ostrander is second on the team with 2.95 kills per set and is averaging 3.09 kills per set in Big Ten play. Ostrander has double-digit kills in seven of the last eight matches dating back to the Texas match on Sept. 20. She has 12 kills in each of the last three matches and has increased her hitting percentage each time, culminating with a career-best .440 performance on Wednesday against Northwestern.
• Amber Rolfzen is second on the team with 116 total kills, averaging 2.11 kills per set.
• Justine Wong-Orantes leads the Big Red in digs with 3.81 per set and ranks ninth in the conference. She had a career-high 29 digs against No. 2 Texas on Sept. 20, the most by a Husker since Kayla Banwarth’s 32 against Baylor on Nov. 18, 2009.
• Mary Pollmiller, the Huskers’ lone senior, has 578 set assists for 10.14 per set. She also adds a defensive presence at the net with 41 blocks to rank second on the team.
• The Huskers are 229-0 when hitting .300 or better under John Cook. 
• Nebraska is 373-16 when winning the first set under Cook. 
• John Cook is 139-40 (.777) against ranked opponents at Nebraska. Just under one-third of Cook’s total victories at Nebraska (424) have come against ranked teams.
• Nebraska volleyball leads the nation with 211 consecutive sellouts, the longest sellout streak in the history of NCAA women’s athletics. NU owns a 194-17 record during the streak.

Three Former Huskers Capture Gold With Team USA
Team USA – with former Huskers Kayla Banwarth, Jordan Larson-Burbach and Kelsey Robinson – beat China 3-1 (27-25, 25-20, 16-25, 26-24) on Oct. 12 to win the FIVB World Championship in Italy. The U.S. Women had never before won gold at any of the three major international volleyball events: World Championship, World Cup or Olympic Games. Larson-Burbach was one of the team’s top hitters throughout the tournament, while Banwarth captured the starting libero role and never relinquished it. Robinson, one of the team’s youngest players, was a key contributor in the early rounds of the tournament.

Huskers Extend Record Poll Streak to 470 Weeks
Nebraska has appeared in every one of the AVCA’s 470 all-time weekly polls. NU and Stanford are the only two programs to appear in every AVCA poll, dating back to its inception in 1982. Nebraska has spent a nation-leading 422 weeks in the top 10.

Huskers’ Lone Senior Among the Nation’s Best
Tri-captain Mary Pollmiller is Nebraska’s lone senior in 2014. The Huskers may only have one senior, but Pollmiller is one of the nation’s top setters. She is in her second season at Nebraska after spending her first two years at Tennessee in 2011 and 2012. Pollmiller was the 2011 SEC Freshman of the Year, and she has earned honorable-mention AVCA All-America accolades twice in her career, including last season (also in 2011). Pollmiller owns 4,597 career assists, a total that ranks fourth nationally. Three of the nation’s top-four active players in career assists are Big Ten Conference setters.