Illini Insider

One to watch
WOMEN’S SOCCER
5 p.m. Friday vs. Purdue
At Illinois Soccer and Track Stadium
Big Ten Network cameras will be on hand for the Illini’s regular season finale, which explains the early starting time. Expect some oddly dressed folks to be on hand, too, for this Halloween evening matchup. The fan judged to have the best costume will receive a pair of tickets to the Nov. 15 Illinois-Ohio State football game at Memorial Stadium.
On the field, Illinois will try to scare up consecutive victories for the first time since early October and possibly move up in the logjammed Big Ten standings. The Illini (10-8) enter in a three-way tie for fifth place at 4-5.
With eight teams qualifying for the Big Ten tournament, Illinois can guarantee a trip to the Nov. 6-9 event at Iowa City, Iowa, with a win or a tie Friday. Even if the Illini lose, the scenarios necessary to keep them out of the tournament are highly unlikely.
Purdue (11-5-3) is third at 5-2-2 and has clinched a tournament bid.
“We’d like to finish as high in the Big Ten as we possibly can,” UI coach Janet Rayfield said. “The difference between winning and losing could be two or three spots in the Big Ten (standings). That’s two or three spots that the NCAA (tournament) selection committee will be taking into account.”
Except for last-place Michigan, no team has been eliminated from Big Ten tournament contention. In this parity-rich league, three standings points separate the fifth- through 10th-place teams.
There is this curveball to consider, too: Iowa is guaranteed a tournament berth because it is the host. Currently in a two-way tie for eighth place, the Hawkeyes could lose to Minnesota on Friday and still displace another team that had earned the eighth seed. Just one more potential oddity in a season in which trying to predict Big Ten outcomes is a headache-inducing exercise.
“It’s been such a strange year in the Big Ten that (tournament) seedings and pairings may not be indicative of the strength of the teams,” Rayfield said.

Illini of the Week
CHELCIE ABAJIAN
Tennis
When the Illini freshman first learned she would have to begin the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in the qualifying bracket, she was disappointed.
So Abajian did something about it, going 3-0 and not dropping a set to advance to the main draw.
“Looking back, it really helped me,” she said. “I went into the main draw with three matches already.”
Turns out the Hawthorne, N.Y., native was just getting rolling. Abajian won three more times at East Lansing, Mich., including a three-set victory against No. 90 Tania Mahtani of Michigan — a Nos. 5-8 seed — in the round of 16. That put Abajian in the quarterfinals — the only qualifier to advance that far — where her eye-opening run finally ended. Paired against No. 30 and top-seeded Samantha Murray of Northwestern, Abajian fell 6-2, 6-3 to finish regionals with a 6-1 record.
“Obviously, it was a great tournament for her,” UI coach Michelle Dasso said. “She played very smart in this tournament, did a good job of moving the ball around. I think she definitely picked up some confidence with each match, which was good.”
That confidence came through even after her lone defeat. Abajian said she felt she was competitive against Murray, a former Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a two-time All-Big Ten selection.
“I was pretty happy with my performance against her,” the Illini newcomer said. “I don’t feel like it was that big of a gap. It makes me realize how close I am to being better.”

It’s a close call
Last fall, Minnesota ended Michigan’s five-year stranglehold on the Big Ten women’s cross-country title. When the next conference meet takes place Sunday at Ann Arbor, Mich., Jeremy Rasmussen wouldn’t be surprised if yet another team emerges from an increasingly tightening league pack.
“Going into last year, there were probably four to five teams that had a legitimate shot at winning the Big Ten title,” the Illini coach said. “Looking at this year, it’s really no different.”
Based on the national rankings, the most likely contenders are No. 7 Minnesota, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Michigan State and No. 10 Illinois.
The Illini are looking to rise in the league race after placing fourth last year and fifth in 2006. Illinois has finished as high as second three times in the meet’s 27-year history.
Rasmussen is confident his top two runners — two-time All-Big Ten first-teamer Angela Bizzarri and two-time second-teamer Katie Engel — will finish among the lead pack. The key to Illinois’ title hopes, he says, is how high the remainder of its scorers can finish. Last year, the Illini’s No. 3 finisher was 11 spots behind Engel.
“One thing we learned from last year ... we’ve got to do a better job with the third through fifth runners and get that gap closed down,” Rasmussen said. “I think everybody in the Big Ten has one or two front-runners. Then, with the three through five runners, the further up they can be, the better off you are.”
The 6-kilometer race starts at 9:45 a.m. at the University of Michigan Golf Course.
Illinois’ nine-runner travel squad includes current Big Ten women’s Runner of the Week Amber Stack, who won the Illini Open last Friday in Urbana.

Will climb continue?
There’s a discernible pattern to how Illini men’s cross-country has fared at Big Ten Championships under coach Wendel McRaven. If it continues Sunday in Ann Arbor, Mich., Illinois will have its first upper-division finish since 1996.
McRaven’s first Illini team finished 10th in 2005, but since then the program has climbed the ladder two rungs at a time. In 2006, Illinois placed eighth. Last fall, the Illini were sixth.
Will the pattern continue when Big Ten teams line up at 10:30 a.m. on the University of Michigan Golf Course for an 8K race? If it does, it will be one of the most notable stories to come out of the meet. That’s because an injury-depleted Illini team will enter seven runners making their Big Ten Championships debut, including six freshmen.
“It’s definitely going to be a challenge,” Mc-Raven said of finishing in the top five. “But a lot of teams are kind of in that middle of the Big Ten. We’re going in with the goal of racing (against) people and putting together our best race to date.”
Minus three veterans who are sidelined for the season, Illinois has traveled an uneven path this year. It took a downturn in mid-October, when the Illini finished 28th in the 40-team White race at the Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, Ind.
“The way we ran at Pre-Nats, we sure didn’t look like a team in the upper half of the Big Ten,” McRaven said. “I’m hoping it was a case of a lot of freshman jitters. ... In a meet like that you’ve got to be prepared for a crazy atmosphere, and we didn’t handle that very well.”
The Illini got a handle on how to respond afterward. McRaven said the following week’s training runs were the best he’s seen from his team all season.
“This is a group of competitive individuals,” the UI coach said.

Going different ways
Brad Dancer will split up his Illini men’s tennis team this weekend, sending one contingent to the Big Ten Singles Tournament in Madison, Wis., and another to the Charles Fluitt Invitational in Lexington, Ky.
Illinois last crowned a conference singles champion in 2001, when Michael Calkins emerged with the title. The four-day tournament begins Friday.
“To be Big Ten singles champion is quite prestigious,” Dancer said.
There’s a big reward for winning in Kentucky, too. The champion receives a wild-card entry into the qualifying bracket for the 2009 ATP Cincinnati Masters tournament.
Whichever location an Illini finds himself in this weekend, Dancer is eager to see the kind of improvement that generally has been evident from his team so far this fall.
“I think we’ve got two more weeks to put a full picture on the fall,” the UI coach said. “We’re seeing improvement, which is what you want.”
In particular, Dancer cited the strides being made by Marc Spicijaric (recovered from an ankle injury) and Billy Heiser. The latter was one of four Illini to reach the round of 16 at the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in mid-October but the only one to take the next step to the quarterfinals.
“When 25 percent of the (remaining) draw are your players, you’re feeling good about that,” Dancer said. “We just did not advance enough of those guys to the next stage.”

Taking the Challenge(r)
Five former Illini are scheduled to be back on campus next month for the JSM Challenger at Atkins Tennis Center.
The 14th annual USTA tournament runs Nov. 9-16, with the main draw beginning Nov. 11.
The ex-Illini contingent is led by No. 126 Kevin Anderson and No. 133 Amer Delic. Anderson attained a career-high ranking of 95 in June, while Delic has reached a pair of quarterfinals on the ATP Tour this year,
Other former Illini in the field are Rajeev Ram, Ruben Gonzales and GD Jones.
The tournament’s defending champion, No. 101 Jesse Levine, and the 2007 runner-up, No. 122 Donald Young, also are entered.

The number
13
Shutouts by the Illini women’s soccer team in its last 15 home matches. Illinois has a 13-1-1 record in that span.

The list
Junior Ashley Edinger (above) moved into second place on the Illini volleyball career digs list on Saturday with 16 digs against Michigan State. The all-time top 10:
PLAYER    DIGS    SEASONS
Tracey Marshall    1,426    1996-99
Ashley Edinger        1,398    2006-08
Mary Coleman        1,393    1995-98
Lauren Harks        1,346    2001-04
Beth Vrdsky        1,166    2003-06
Sandy Scholtens       1,133    1985-88
Mary Eggers       1,092    1985-88
Petra Laverman       1,003    1988-90
Kathleen Bazzetta      974    2001-04
Shadia Haddad        962    1998-2001

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