Jeff Huth's Illini Insider

One to watch

VOLLEYBALL

1 p.m. Sunday vs. Wisconsin, at Huff Hall

If No. 1 Penn State is the prohibitive Big Ten favorite and if No. 12 Minnesota has made the strongest argument so far for being the league's second-best team, who's next in line?

This match could help clarify that debate ... that is, if each team survives its first Big Ten match of the weekend. For that reason, coach Don Hardin has little interest in contemplating the Badgers until Saturday at the earliest.

"My No. 1 thoughts about Wisconsin are Northwestern," said Hardin, whose team will host the Wildcats at 7 p.m. Friday. "I hope my team is on the same page."

No. 17 Illinois (13-4) and No. 19 Wisconsin (14-4) enter the weekend tied for third place at 4-2. On paper, the Badgers have the tougher assignment Friday, traveling to No. 21 Purdue (14-4). Meanwhile, the Illini face a Northwestern team (6-18) that has yet to win in six Big Ten matches.

That isn't keeping Hardin from fretting about Friday's matchup. Not after the Wildcats have beaten his Illini at Huff Hall each of the past three seasons. Not after merely one of NU's losses this season was in straight sets, Not after four other Wildcat setbacks went the five-set distance, including a defeat to current No. 14 Wichita State.

"Northwestern is a team that has no business being 0-6 right now," Hardin said. "The quality of their play and how close they are in games doesn't match up with being 0-6, And we're worried about that. We cannot afford to look ahead."

By Saturday, however, looking ahead will be OK with Hardin. In fact, he'll insist on it as his Illini prepare for a Badgers team that is 6-0 against Illinois during the past three years. The Illini will have one more day than usual to get ready for this match because it was moved from Saturday to avoid a conflict with Illinois' home football game against Indiana that night.

"We're hoping (the extra preparation) can play to our advantage," Hardin said.

The UI coach acknowledges that a victory against the Badgers – coupled, of course, with a win versus Northwestern – would be a major step in the Big Ten race and beyond.

"Externally, it would be significant in terms of how we're viewed on the national scene," he said. "Internally, it's important because right about this weekend or next it seems that Big Ten teams are settling into an identity."

An identity that could position Illinois – or Wisconsin – among the league's top three.

Illini of the Week

MEN'S GOLF TEAM

Not since Steve Stricker and Mike Small were leading Illinois to the 1988 Big Ten title had an Illini golf team won three tournaments in a row.

That changed Monday, when Small's current Illini squad duplicated the 20-year-old trifecta by clinching the D.A. Weibring Intercollegiate crown in Normal. After victories in the Fighting Illini/Olympia Fields Invitational and The Windon Memorial Classic, Illinois is on a roll that's taken it all the way to the top of the Golfstat computer rankings.

"That shows our potential, shows what we can do," Small said. "Now we have to get good enough where we can keep doing it."

What really catches the ninth-year Illini coach's eye is the number of record book-worthy low rounds his golfers are shooting. In four tournaments, five Illini have a total of 10 sub-70 rounds, including five by sophomore Scott Langley. Langley, classmate Chris DeForest and freshman Luke Guthrie each have fired 64s, tying the second-lowest 18-round score in UI history.

"That's unheard of, that depth for this program," Small said.

The UI coach is closely monitoring how his young squad – five of the eight roster members are freshmen or sophomores – is reacting to its success.

"I think they're enjoying it," Small said. "I think they're acknowledging it. But we're a young team and the jury is still out on how it's going to affect us from here forward. I know we had some sluggishness last weekend because maybe of the ranking and because of kind of resting on our laurels a little bit. We have to be mature enough to understand that (three straight wins) is something to be proud of, but it is in the past."

Illinois has one remaining fall tournament, the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational at Windermere, Fla. The Oct. 26-28 event has a powerhouse field, including 11 of the top 17 teams in this week's Golfstat rankings.

Bizzarri is back

The Illini women's cross-country team has been without its top runner at every meet so far. That will change Saturday, when Angela Bizzarri makes her season debut in the Pre-Nationals meet at Terre Haute, Ind.

Because Bizzarri's 2008 track season did not end until early July at the U.S. Olympic Trials, UI coach Jeremy RasmusseN put the two-time cross-country All-American on a recuperative schedule. While skipping all of the Illini's meets to this point, Bizzarri geared her training toward being ready for the meat of the schedule. And from what Rasmussen has seen in recent weeks, she indeed is ready.

"She's ahead of where she was last year at this time," he said.

That can only help a No. 17 Illini team coming off a ninth-place finish Oct. 3 at the Notre Dame Invitational. Nine of 12 UI entrants ran personal-best times for a 5-kilometer race.

"Hopefully, that's a good sign of things to come," Rasmussen said. "We're definitely in shape."

The Illini do have strides to make, Rasmussen said, in the area of race strategy. Although Katie Engel placed eighth in the 186-runner field, no other Illini finished in the top 44.

"In a large race, you've got to put yourself in (good) position fairly early in the race," Rasmussen said.

"If you put yourself too far back, it's a pretty daunting task to get past 100, 150 runners."

Woods is not

While regaining Bizzarri, Illinois has lost another of its top runners for the season. Danelle Woods, the 2007 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, sustained a quadriceps injury several weeks ago that led to a stress reaction in her left femur. Woods, who had yet to enter a meet, will sit out the fall and apply for a medical redshirt. Rasmussen expects her to be ready to compete by the indoor track season.

Woods' loss clearly is a blow to the team, but Rasmussen believes the Illini have enough depth to remain nationally competitive. He pointed to freshman Kristin Sutherland, who won the Illinois Intercollegiate and was Illinois' No. 2 finisher at Notre Dame, as someone capable of taking up the slack in Woods' absence.

"Obviously, you never want to lose anybody," Rasmussen said. "But I think we're as good or better than last year. Everybody is ahead of where they were last year by a pretty good margin."

Youth is served

Coach Wendel McRaven calls his current freshman class the best he's coached in four years at the Illini men's cross-country helm.

That's a good thing because circumstances have forced McRaven to throw many of them immediately into the collegiate fires. When the Illini compete in Pre-Nationals on Saturday, six of McRaven's seven entrants in the varsity division will be true or redshirt freshmen.

"It does seem kind of weird to me, but that's where we're at right now," he said.

Chances are several of the newcomers would be in McRaven's top seven anyway, but that number expanded because of injuries to veterans. Sophomore Jared Richardson, who ran in every meet for the UI last year, had surgery during the summer to correct a chronic ankle problem and is being redshirted. Junior Jacob Nachel might have to redshirt, too. A year ago at Pre-Nationals, Nachel ran the fourth-fastest 8K time in UI history. But he's been dealing with a nagging ankle injury since the 2008 Big Ten outdoor track meet and more recently had his training affected by illness. McRaven says a redshirt for Nachel becomes "a stronger possibility" with each passing week.

That leaves junior Jeremy Stevens as the lone vet in the UI's top seven. Still, McRaven continues to like what he sees from the likes of redshirt freshman Dan Kremske and true freshmen Jim Riddle and Nathan Troester.

"It's a deep group and a confident group, and all of them are really competitive runners," McRaven said. "You can see it in the last mile of a race; they're going to keep fighting."

Rising regional

For the Illini men's tennis team, the road to the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships goes through Columbus, Ohio.

Brad Dancer's squad will be on the Ohio State campus today for the start of ITA Midwest Regional Championship. The event runs through Monday, with singles finalists and the winning doubles tandem earning a trip to indoor nationals Nov. 6-9 in Virginia.

Dancer, in his fifth season on the UI staff and fourth as head coach, has seen a steady climb in the quality of competition at the Midwest Regionals. Getting to the finals, he says, is increasingly difficult.

"It's not like it used to be," Dancer said. "In the past, I felt like in some of the early rounds, you could get through pretty handily. Now, there are a lot of good players in the region, which is exciting and tough. It's a strong draw right now."

The UI's top singles hopefuls include Roy KalmAnovich, Dennis Nevolo, Ruan Roelofse and Marc Spicijaric. Last weekend, Roelofse defeated Nevolo in the singles final of the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational in Midland, Texas.

Billy Heiser, who reached the Midwest Regional doubles semifinals last year, will be paired with Roelofse.

Stuttering starts

Renee Slone knew her young Illinois women's golf team would face a learning curve this fall. What has the third-year UI coach learned herself about this freshman-dominated squad? The Illini routinely are stumbling during the first 18 holes before gaining their balance.

"We need to start getting off to a better start in the first round," Slone said. "The first round in all three of our tournaments was our highest round and so we were forced to play catchup."

Typically, the Illini have put themselves in too deep of a hole to dig out of. Illinois has finished 10th, ninth and ninth after opening rounds of 314, 313 and 314.

Just as typically, the Illini have bounced back. Their low round of the season, a 299, came in a second round. And with one exception, Illinois has shot 307 or lower in all rounds after the opening 18.

"We respond well (after the first round)," Slone said. "Hopefully, we can get off to a better start and build on that momentum."

Illinois' next chance to do so comes this weekend in West Lafayette, Ind., at the Lady Northern Invitational. The 54-hole event at the Kampen Course starts Saturday with two rounds.

The Lady Northern is held each fall at the site of the next Big Ten Championships. Slone already has taken her golfers to Kampen once this fall for a team qualifying round.

"It is a very challenging golf course," she said. "The more you play it, the more comfortable one tends to feel on that course."

Freshman Hailey Koschmann, the 2007 IHSA Class 2A state champion, leads the Illini in scoring average at 75.22. The Lake Forest native has finished in the top 20 in all three UI tournaments this fall.

The number
57.65
Laura Adrian’s winning time in the 100-yard backstroke during her Illini swimming debut Friday in a home dual meet against Nebraska. The freshman from Quincy became the ninth-fastest individual in the event in UI history.

The list
The Illini men’s tennis team will try to add to its list of ITA regional champions starting today in Columbus, Ohio, at the ITA Midwest Championships. The roll call of past UI winners:
YEAR   CHAMPIONS
1996    Jerry Turek and Brady Blain (doubles)
1998    Jeff Laski and Jamal Parker (doubles)
1990    Amer Delic and Graydon Oliver (doubles)
2001    Amer Delic and Michael Calkins (doubles)
2002    Phil Stolt (singles)
2003    Michael Calkins and Chris Martin (doubles)
2004    Ryler DeHeart (singles)
2005    Marc Spicijaric and Monte Tucker (doubles)

Comments