The Illinois volleyball team, which opened the season in the Top 10, appears ready to topple out of the Top 25 after a heartbreaking loss at Purdue Friday.
The 24th-ranked Fighting Illini (12-9, 9-3 in the Big 10) led 14-13 and were serving for the match in the tiebreaking fifth game. But the Boilermakers rallied to win the game 17-15 and the match 3-2.
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Illinois rebounded to defeat Indiana 3-1 in Bloomington Saturday.
The Fighting Illini, Big 10 co-champs a year ago, remain locked in third place in the league behind Penn State and Ohio State. Illinois is still likely to receive its eighth straight NCAA tournament berth; this year, the tourney field expands to 48 teams from 32.
Senior Tina Rogers was a second-team All-American last season and is having another stellar year. She has topped 20 kills in each of her last three matches and leads the team in kills, aces and digs. Last weekend, she became the ninth Illinois player to reach 1,000 kills in her career. Teammate Kristin Henriksen did it the week before.
Henriksen leads the Big 10 with a .366 hitting percentage, while Rogers is second at .362.
Running wild: Karen Morris, a senior from Chrisman, Ill., turned in Illinois’ best performance at the Big 10 Cross Country Championship in Bloomington, Ind., Saturday. Morris finished 10th in a field of 84. The women’s team finished in sixth place.
On the men’s side, senior Daniel Nolan of Naperville placed 35th to lead the Illini, who wound up eighth as a team. Both teams will run at the NCAA District 4 Championships Nov. 13 in Bloomington.
The big eye: The starting times for Illinois’ next two football games have been changed for television. ESPN has changed Saturday’s kickoff against Minnesota in Memorial Stadium to 11:30 a.m. ABC has moved the kickoff of the Nov. 13 game at Penn State to 2:30 p.m., Chicago time.