CHAMPAIGN – The rut continues.

The University of Illinois volleyball team again put up a good fight against one of the Big Ten Conference's best. And once more, the Illini had nothing to show for it but a loss.

"Once again, we came up short against a ranked opponent, and that's not what we're about," coach Don Hardin said Friday night after his Illini fell 15-10, 12-15, 15-13, 15-9 to Michigan State at Huff Hall. "It's getting old. We're getting tired of it."

Hardin can be forgiven for incorrectly referring to the Spartans as a ranked team. After all, MSU had been in the Top 25 in each of the previous 43 polls before falling out of the rankings this week.

Just the same, the Spartans undeniably are a Big Ten power – just the type Illinois has been unable to break through against for the past two years. With Friday's defeat, the Illini are a cumulative 0-15 against the four league teams that have been poll regulars during that span – MSU, Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State.

"People always tell me we'll have all these people (players) back next year and things will get better," Hardin said. "But we don't want to wait. We want to get over the hump this year."

By defeating the Illini, the Spartans remained in a two-way tie for fourth place at 10-5 and improved their overall record to 20-8.

Meanwhile, the Illini slipped to 14-12 and 5-11. Also slipping away was any chance of a .500 record in the Big Ten. With only four league matches remaining, Illinois is assured of finishing with a losing conference record for the second year in a row.

In each of their last four defeats, the Illini have taken the opponent to at least four games. What made this setback especially frustrating for Hardin and his players was the fact that Illinois squandered leads in each of the last two games.

In Game 3, Illinois bolted out to an 8-4 advantage before hitting the wall. The Spartans scored the next eight points to take the lead for good, then fended off a UI rally that cut MSU's lead to 14-13.

In the fourth game, the Illini again appeared to have things in control, taking leads of 6-3 and 8-5. And once again, their offense went into a sudden and prolonged slumber. This time, it never did awaken, MSU outscoring Illinois 10-1 the rest of the way to end the match.

"We're not producing the basics to win games," UI middle blocker Cristy Chapman said, pointing to miscues like net violations and service errors (there were 10) that helped do her team in. "It's the little things that are holding us back."

Although the Illini hit only .175 – their lowest attack percentage in the last six matches – Hardin wanted to make it clear that setter Melissa Beitz was in no way to blame.

"Melissa Beitz set an incredible match tonight," Hardin said of the Illini sophomore, who finished with 57 assists and also contributed eight digs and four kills. "That was probably the best match she's played since she's been here."

Two other Illini came through with double-doubles. Tracey Marshall led the UI in both kills (16) and digs (17), and Sara Sorrell had 15 and 10 in those categories.

Big Ten kills leader Jenna Wrobel led the Spartans with 22, although the junior outside hitter also committed 11 of her team's 31 hitting errors.

The match, which was televised nationally by ESPN2, attracted the second-largest crowd (2,697) to Huff Hall this season.

The Illini return to action next Friday at No. 25 Ohio State.