Jeff Huth's Illini Insider

For more on UI athletics, click here to read Brian Moline's blog.

WEEKEND WATCH

Three Illini events to keep an eye on this weekend:

CROSS-COUNTRY

Illini Open, 4 p.m. Friday

Jeremy Rasmussen's No. 13 Illini women and Wendel McRaven's UI men will make their final home appearance of the season at the UI Arboretum in Urbana. The 5-kilometer women's race opens the action, with the men scheduled to begin their 8K run at 4:45 p.m. Since this meet is six days after the Pre-Nationals Invitational, both coaches plan to withhold their top six runners. For the rest of each team's roster, it's a chance to build their collegiate resumes and catch their coach's eye. Rasmussen is hopeful that two key veterans will be ready to race for the first time since redshirting last fall with injuries. Sophomore Danelle Woods (quadriceps), who also missed the 2009 track season, was the 2007 Big Ten Freshman of the Year in women's cross-country. Junior Shannon Phelan (shin) was the UI's top finisher at the 2007 Pre-Nationals. Like Rasmussen, McRaven will use Friday's results to determine the final three spots on his nine-runner Big Ten Championships entry list.

SWIMMING & DIVING

vs. Iowa State, 1 p.m. Saturday

Free admission, free food, music, inflatable games for the kids, and a women's collegiate dual meet. Does that cover it all for the Illini's "Splash Bash '09" promotion? Hardly. Coach Jolette Law's women's basketball team will be on hand to meet and greet fans. A watch party for Illinois' 11 a.m. football game at Purdue is part of the itinerary, too. And Sue Novitsky's Illini swimmers will remain on deck after the 1 p.m. meet to sign autographs. If you've yet to check out the newly renovated Activities and Recreation Center, that's reason, too, to attend this meet.

VOLLEYBALL

at Wisconsin, 7 p.m. Friday

There might not be a harder team to get a read on in the Big Ten than Wisconsin, which makes this a dangerous match for the No. 8 Illini. Will Illinois see the Badger team that knocked off nationally ranked Michigan and Michigan State or the one that lost to Big Ten second-division squads Iowa and Purdue? Up-and-down Wisconsin enters 9-8 overall and 4-4 in the conference but has won three of its last four matches. The Badgers' win-one, lose-one ways extend to their home court, where they are 3-3. Second-place Illinois (14-3, 6-2 Big Ten) will attempt to extend its winning streak to six. This begins a stretch of four straight road matches for the Illini, who so far have played four times on an opponent's home court. If Illinois wins, it will be its third straight victory against the Badgers. That hasn't happened since the Illini won five in a row in this series from 1992 to '94.

ILLINI OF THE WEEK

ANGELA BIZZARRI

Cross-country

Aside from the NCAA Championships, there isn't a bigger meet on the college cross-country schedule than the Pre-Nationals Invitational. On the same course that will host the national championships, Bizzarri looked right at home while winning the White race Saturday at Terre Haute, Ind. The senior's first cross-country victory since her freshman debut took all of her competitive drive. Bizzarri trailed the lead runner by nearly 20 seconds at the halfway point of the 6-kilometer race. Then the three-time cross-country All-American began running down everyone in front of her, ultimately edging runner-up Kendra Schaaf of Washington – the 2008 Pac-10 Conference Athlete of the Year in women's cross-country – by 1.2 seconds. Bizzarri's season-best 6K time of 20:27.8 was almost 20 seconds faster than her clocking in this same meet last year. The reigning Big Ten women's Cross-Country Runner of the Week also recorded the No. 3 overall time at Pre-Nationals behind the Blue race winner and runner-up.

NEWS & VIEWS

Drill bits

Is another match at the Assembly Hall in Illini volleyball's future? Following Friday night's Spike the Record event, UI coach Kevin Hambly was open to the possibility.

"If the circumstances are right again, we would certainly consider it again," he said.

Illini junior outside hitter Laura DeBruler expressed hope the team might some day play an NCAA tournament match at the 16,618-seat facility rather than its Huff Hall home court. Hambly said such a move currently was impossible because of NCAA equipment requirements for its postseason tournament. Specifically, any volleyball net system must be secured into the floor. That would mean drilling holes into the Assembly Hall floor. For the Spike the Record event, a free-standing net system was used.

Even if the Assembly Hall powers-that-be allowed floor drilling, Hambly still would prefer to stay at cozy 4,050-seat Huff Hall for NCAA tournament home matches.

"I still like playing at Huff," he said. "I mean I like it here (at the Assembly Hall), but Huff's a great place to play in the NCAA. If we wanted to do something like a Final Four (at the Assembly Hall), it might be worth it."

Travel travails

Minnesota's 3-0 loss to the Illini on Spike the Record night capped a memorable trip to Champaign for the Gophers. Memorable for all the wrong reasons. Due to a canceled flight that forced the Gopher travel party to scramble for alternate ground transportation, the team didn't arrive in Champaign until 1 a.m. Friday.

Minnesota coach Mike Hebert wasn't about to blame the match's outcome on his team's travel snafu.

"Illinois won the match because they played great," he said.

But the former Illini coach lists the trip among the most challenging traveling experiences of his career, now in its 34th year. Hebert's worst volleyball trip? He can't remember the year, but he vividly recalls the circumstances of a maddening Illini visit to Ohio State.

While traveling to the Buckeyes' gym, the Illini team bus was caught in the typically massive traffic jams on a football Saturday in Columbus, Ohio. In addition, each time it attempted to turn toward St. John Arena, the bus was turned away by police due to strict traffic direction restrictions. It got so bad that at one point Hebert hopped out of the bus with his volleyball match contract to show an officer. The reply? "Son, better get back on that bus and get the (heck) out of here now," Hebert said. While stuck in this holding pattern, the mood turned particularly serious as one of the players experienced a seizure. Finally, Hebert reached his breaking point. With the bus needing to turn left to reach the arena, the head coach and one of his assistants jumped out of the bus and removed a street barricade. "Our players were in the bus screaming like it was some kind of revolutionary uprising," Hebert said. The bus then sped on its way with irate officers yelling in its wake. When the team finally arrived at the arena, Illini coaches and players ran to the entrance "so we wouldn't get apprehended," Hebert said. They entered the gym five minutes before the match was to start.

Record reckoning

By now you might be aware that the Spike the Record event did not meet NCAA criteria for a regular-season volleyball attendance record. As it turned out, the UI crowd of 7,632 didn't come near the current record of 13,870. Even if that figure had been exceeded, however, the NCAA would not have recognized it as a record because the match was held in conjunction with another event – in this case, basketball's Illini Madness. The NCAA keeps a separate volleyball attendance record for matches held in conjunction with a special promotion of another athletics event. That mark, 16,126, was set by North Carolina in 2003 before a men's basketball season-opening practice.

We asked Jennifer Rodgers, the NCAA assistant director of statistics, why the organization makes this distinction. "The team is capitalizing on fans coming in for another event," she said in an e-mailed response.

EDDLEMAN AWARD WATCH LIST

Each week we'll rank our top three candidates for the 2009-10 Dike Eddleman Award, which annually goes to the top male and female athletes at the University of Illinois:

MALE

1. Dennis Nevolo, tennis. Sophomore went 8-1 in singles and doubles at ITA Midwest Regional.

2. Scott Langley, golf. Junior's 70.67 average nearly 2 strokes lower than any teammate.

3. Paul Ruggeri, gymnastics. Junior makes list for "flipping out" at Illini Madness.

FEMALE

1. Angela Bizzarri, cross-country. Senior on course for fourth All-America honor in the sport.

2. Laura DeBruler, volleyball. Junior reached double figures in digs in eight of last nine matches.

3. Meghan Mason, swimming. Junior won two events, contributed to two winning relays last weekend.

THE  LIST

Dennis Nevolo and Marek Czerwinski became the seventh Illini doubles team to win an ITA regional title Monday at Ann Arbor, Mich. The previous six:

DOUBLES TEAM YEAR

Jerry Turek/Brady Blain 1996

Jeff Laski/Jamal Parker 1998

Amer Delic/Graydon Oliver 1999

DOUBLES TEAM YEAR

Amer Delic/Michael Calkins 2001

Michael Calkins/Chris Martin 2003

Marc Spicijaric/Monte Tucker 2005

Comments

Add a Comment