Illinois volleyball got bonus time at the gym last week after its two games against Northwestern were postponed due to COVID-19 issues in the Wildcats program. The Illinois (2-4) host Ohio State (7-0) twice this weekend – Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. – at Huff Hall.
Beatwriter Scott Richey cancels the Big Ten matchup:
Injury update
Ellie Holzman spent almost 20 months outside of competitive volleyball after stress fractures in her left leg required intramedullary nail surgery. Their return this season was short-lived, however, as the redshirt freshman outside the batsman suffered a ripped ACL against Wisconsin on Jan. 30. Surgery is slated for next week for the 6-foot-2 redshirt novice who had 35 kills in four games this season.
“It’s been a difficult few weeks for her to realize she is going through this again,” said Chris Tamas, Illinois coach. “I told her too, and I said that if there is anyone who can handle it, it is her. It’s just a bummer that she’s pausing again. It’s a fast, dynamic sport and an unfortunate injury. She will have an operation next week and then continue to recover. “
Filling
Raina Terry made her Illinois debut at the Illinois season opening weekend in Iowa, scoring a total of six kills in every game against the Hawkeyes. The 6-1 freshman has since returned to her natural position when Holzman was out. The Ohio native Marengo hit consecutive career highs with eight and then 13 kills against Penn State two weeks ago.
“It’s really hard to play six rotations in our conference,” said Tamas. This is a necessity for the Illinois outside hitters when running a 6-2 system. “Both Ellie and now Raina show that they have the mental and physical strength to do this. Really proud of their development. “
Practice time
The postponement of both games against Northwestern last week wasn’t necessarily bad for Illinois. The Illinois had just played top 10 teams – No. 1 Wisconsin and then No. 9 Penn State – on consecutive weekends and lost all four games. Tamas spent the open week of the bonus instructing his team to play a little more freely.
“We have to figure out how to unlock this a bit,” he said. “That is part of dealing with a possibly younger team and a team that is not used to playing together a lot. We were able to point out many problems that we could have eliminated with communication. Let’s worry about the good game, not about making the perfect game every time. “
Scouting Ohio State
The Buckeyes are still undefeated at the beginning of the season and secured a home win against Now-No on Wednesday at home. 8 Penn State. First year coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg, an Ohio State graduate and former Illinois assistant to Don Hardin and Kevin Hambly, relies on a pair of young underdogs, including Terry’s teammate Emily Londot, to kill the freshman.
“They got off to a good start, but I think we are a good fit for them,” said Tamas. “If we can just go out and maybe do a little better – that’s always important – but if we get into the red zone, the last five points, we will probably do better than we have in the past few weeks.”
Scott Richey is a reporter who covers college basketball for The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
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