Illinois Fighting Illini2022 Record: 15-15
Conference Record: 10-10 (7th)
NCAA Tournament Placement: N/A
Final AVCA Ranking: NR
Head Coach: Chris Tamas (7th season at Illinois)
Record at Illinois: 115-67
Returning Starters | Departures * - 2022 Starter () - Transfer Destination | New Additions () - Transfer Origin |
Caroline Barnes - JR - 5'11 L
Kayla Burbage - JR - 6'4 RS
Kennedy Collins - SR+ - 6'3 MB
Brooke Mosher - R-SO - 6'0 OH/S
Raina Terry - SR - 6'3 OH | Diana Brown* - 6'0 S
Sophie Gregus - JR - 6'1 OH [Retired]
Rylee Hinton* - 6'2 MB
Jessica Nunge* - 6'2 OH
Becca Sakoda - JR - 5'9 DS/L ()
Kyla Swanson - SR+ - 6'4 MB ()
Maddie Whittington - R-JR - 6'4 MB/RS [Retired] | Lily Barry - FR - 5'6 DS/L
Taylor De Boer - FR - 6'4 OH/RS
Gabby Dean - FR - 6'4 MB
Maya Imoto-Eakin - FR - 5'9 S
Maddie Llewellyn - SO - 5'7 DS/L
Vanessa Pan - SR+ - 5'7 DS/L () |
2022 Results:Illinois is one of two Big Ten programs that opened the 2022 season with a loss. It came at the hands of Georgia Tech, which had made the NCAA Tournament regional finals the previous year.
The Illini bounced back by defeating Ole Miss, the host of that weekend's invite. But an even tougher road trip awaited as Illinois fell in consecutive matches to Colorado and Washington in the Big Ten/Pac-12 challenge, relegating the Illini to a 1-3 start.
Huff Hall was still not in the picture yet as Illinois hit the road again for Week 3. That trip finally put the Illini above 0.500 with three wins over Missouri State, Villanova, and Dayton. Another easy win over Eastern Illinois came soon after.
But the final weekend of non-conference play devolved into a confusing mess as Illinois dropped five-set contests to Illinois State and Marquette. A close loss to Marquette is nothing horrifying, but that Illinois State defeat qualified as a mild disaster. You almost needed the Marquette win to offset the negative implications of losing to a short-handed Redbird squad.
So, things didn't look great heading into conference play. Despite this, Illinois took care of business against Maryland and Northwestern to start 2-0 in the league. Perhaps it was the impact of the Illini finally playing their first home matches of the entire year.
The next week featured two agonizingly close calls against conference frontrunners. Purdue came to Huff Hall and escaped with a five-set victory. Then, Illinois had Wisconsin on the ropes in the UW Fieldhouse but couldn't close it out after taking a 2-1 lead.
Illinois's next six matches were all sweeps in either direction, and they were all the expected results, too. Wins over Maryland and Rutgers were accompanied by straight-set losses to four highly ranked teams: Penn State, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Nebraska.
This team was due for a win over a conference foe it wasn't "supposed" to beat. That day finally came in late October with a four-set home win over Penn State. It was the Illini's first ranked win in ten attempts.
But Illinois quickly found itself back on the losing side of an agonizingly close battle against a quality team. It was Minnesota this time, and the Golden Gophers overcame razor-thin margins to win in five at Huff Hall.
A four-match win streak against the Michigan schools and Iowa brought Illinois back in the positive, but the final week featuring Indiana and Northwestern was unsightly. Both were losses, and Illinois finished an even 0.500.
The Illini were likely out of the NCAA Tournament discussion regardless of those final two results. A program that had made the 2021 regional semifinals had now fallen short of a postseason bid. All Illinois could do was look back in agony at close calls against Marquette, Purdue, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
2022 Lineup:Perhaps a bit of lineup continuity would have helped Illinois get over the hump in some of those close contests. It was a season full of injuries and changes.
We can at least start with the players that were in action throughout the year. Redshirt senior Diana Brown was back as the team's primary setter. It was a 5-1 offense, aside from some early-season fidgeting with a 6-2 that never really took hold.
Sophomore Caroline Barnes took over the libero spot. It was her first season in the contrasting jersey after playing as a DS during the 2021 campaign.
Now it feels strange that I've waited this long to mention the "big gun," Raina Terry. The junior outside hitter entered the 2022 season as the unquestioned leader of the offense, and she delivered with just over four kills per set to rank fourth in the Big Ten in that metric.
Unfortunately for the Illini, Terry was the only constant at any of the pin positions. Now, when you look at the season's cumulative statistics, you'll see that redshirt freshman Brooke Mosher played in every set. But Mosher's role in the lineup was anything but concrete.
Let's establish the full context before discussing Mosher specifically. Illinois started the 2022 season with Terry at L2, returning senior Jessica Nunge at L1, and Missouri transfer Kayla Burbage at opposite. Mosher played as a backcourt sub for Burbage.
The aforementioned injury bug hit the pin position with Nunge going down right before Big Ten play in late September. She wouldn't return to the floor until Oct. 19 and did not play in the front row until the Minnesota match on Nov. 6. While Nunge was out, Mosher went from a back row sub with a setting background to a left-side hitter across the front row. That shifted the team's DS lineup, with Sophie Gregus frequently coming in for Mosher and Becca Sakoda replacing Burbage.
When Nunge was finally cleared to hit late in the season, a new wrinkle emerged with Nunge and Terry back in the early-season spots and Mosher now playing opposite. This made Burbage the odd one out for much of November.
The conversation around the middle blocker spot has its own complications. Returning senior Kennedy Collins missed a small portion of 2022's action but was largely the team's mainstay at the M1 position. She regularly served in addition to her vital role in the frontcourt.
M2 featured a medley of veterans Rylee Hinton and Kyla Swanson for one reason or another. Hinton emerged as the go-to at this spot for roughly the last two-thirds of the season and quietly had a very efficient campaign.
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2023 Projected Lineup:This feels like somewhat of a new era for Illinois, even if some big names are back.
It's no secret that Terry will get the lion's share of Illini swings once again. In fact, you can take any prior notions of "Terry ball" and dial it up to a ten. More swings, more Terry.
The burdens on Terry will be even greater this year as uncertainties loom at other frontcourt positions. We can probably expect Burbage to reassume her spot at opposite despite being phased out toward the end of the year. Improved numbers at this position will be paramount, however.
Burbage's spot on the depth chart is further solidified by the fact that Mosher is no longer in the picture at the pin positions. The redshirt sophomore will give up her role as a multi-dimensional pin hitter to become Illinois's full-time setter in a 5-1 system. That's not a sentence you get to write often.
But that still leaves one more spot to be filled on the left across from Terry. Nunge is gone. Redshirt freshman Sophie Stephenson is in the mix. Canadian freshman Taylor de Boer is another option. This is a confounding mystery that will alter the course of the season in either direction.
We're also looking for an M2 behind Collins, who is returning for a fifth year. Swanson is off to Auburn and Hinton has graduated. Cari Bohm is another 2022 recruit who redshirted last season. The only other options on the roster are freshman Gabby Dean and redshirt sophomore Sarah Bingham. Bingham might be a factor after making very brief appearances last season. She's a hybrid player who could either see time at middle or opposite.
Barnes returns at libero, but questions persist regarding the entire DS unit. Sakoda has transferred and Gregus retired. Illinois nabbed Columbia University graduate transfer Vanessa Pan, who could see extended playing time. You're looking at a scenario where both pins aside from Terry could be subbed out of the back row. Lily Barry is a standout freshman to watch, and sophomore DS Maddie Llewellyn has apparently made the transition from student manager to player. Wild.
2023 Schedule:Illinois plays its entire 2023 non-conference slate in Illinois or Indiana. Get on the bus. Make it a nice family outing in the Winnebago.
The season starts with a road match against Northern Illinois, a program that has pieced together a couple of winning seasons after a long period of futility. You'd expect a team like Illinois to take care of NIU, but we were all there to witness last year's Illinois State gaffe.
Illinois also doesn't have to wait until late September to play in Huff Hall. Week 2 brings Valparaiso, Wichita State, and those pesky Redbirds in a strange Tuesday-Friday-Sunday split. Don't overlook Wichita State, and, please, beat Illinois State.
Another Tuesday match is on deck with a trip to UIC. That's an unusual venue and you should watch some of that.
On to South Bend, Indiana, to face Notre Dame and Oklahoma. We're going to learn about the Illini here, as these are the first two Power 5 foes on the slate.
Tuesday strikes back with Bradley on the schedule. That might be a tough RPI hit to take with the Braves posting a 10-21 record last year in the MVC.
Finally, the triumphant return to the Hoosier State features matches against USC and UCF in Purdue's Holloway Gym. We're having fun now. Illinois will be the favorites against the Knights and the underdogs when facing the Women of Troy.
B1G time:
2023 Outlook:Can Illinois return to the NCAA Tournament? That's the bar you set in 2023, and anything more than that is gravy.
It's not hard to piece together eight or nine wins from this year's non-conference schedule. In the context of those tournament aspirations, you just hope those weaker opponents put up respectable records rather than crashing and burning. A lighter slate means you'll take all the help you can get.
But that also means the margin for error in conference play could shrink. Illinois has to close out one or two of these marquee matches. Another season of falling short against almost every higher-ranked team would leave the Illini on the outside looking in.
Terry has to keep the hot hand for Illinois to stay in the postseason hunt. A slow match from her could leave the Illini vulnerable to losses from any team in the Big Ten's middle-to-lower tier.
There's also a lot riding on players we haven't seen in collegiate action yet. And not only are there voids to fill in the frontcourt, but Illinois is coming off a weak passing year and is now deploying new personnel around Barnes. Rough patches are inevitable, and the Illini need to dial it in at the right time.
So, watch for early indications of what Illinois is doing to address these uncertainties. It could be the difference between a spot on the tournament bubble and another year hovering around 0.500.