CHAMPAIGN – On Saturday night, two Illini varsity teams were better than one in Don Hardin's eyes.

A year ago, in his first season as Illinois' head volleyball coach, Hardin sent a united team out on the Huff Hall court against an alumni squad and watched his players scramble to win the first game 17-15 en route to a 3-0 match triumph.

Saturday night, with a new format pairing alumni against alumni and varsity against varsity, Hardin was pleasantly surprised by his divided forces.

"I thought the level of play was higher than last year's match against the alumni in spite of the fact that we tried to pair up the (varsity) teams evenly," he said.

An Orange squad led by Tracey Marshall's 14 kills and Heidi Coulter's nine digs swept the two varsity games 15-11 and 15-3.

Mary Coleman had nine kills and Cristy Chapman six digs for the Blue. Setter Heather Wilson of Rantoul and middle blocker Betsy Spicer made their UI debuts with the Blue.

"Putting both freshmen on the same side might not have been, in retrospect, the smart thing to do," Hardin said. "But I thought Heather Wilson looked good, especially since this was her first time in an Illinois uniform."

In alumni action, late arrival Kelly Scherr helped the Blue bounce back from a 15-0 trouncing in the opener to defeat the Orange 16-14 in the rematch.