Purdue picks up road win at Illinois

CHAMPAIGN, IL. (WLFI) - The No. 22 Boilermaker volleyball team won their 13th-straight five set match, coming from behind to top Illinois 3-2 on the road Wednesday night. Purdue won the match 26-24, 20-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-9.

Redshirt junior Catherine Rebarchak led the way offensively with a career-high 18 kills, while senior Ariel Turner added 13 and sophomore Kiki Jones chipped in 10. Senior Anna Drewry downed nine kills while hitting at a .727 clip, while sophomore Val Nichol posted eight kills. Purdue outhit the Illini .229 to .170 thanks to a .375 effort in Set 4 and a .368 mark in Set 5.

Drewry led the Boilers at the net with seven stuffs as Purdue outblocked Illinois 13-9. Turner added five blocks, while Jones and Rebarchak each chipped in four. Redshirt junior Carly Cramer led the Purdue backcourt with 20 digs, while redshirt junior Rachel Davis finished off a double-double adding 14 digs to her 53 assists. Freshman Amanda Neill pulled up 11 digs, while junior Hilliary Fox added 10. Neill and Cramer each served up two aces for Purdue.

The Boilermakers started Set 5 with a bang, scoring the first five points, three on blocks by Jones, who teamed up with Turner twice and Rebarchak once. Rebarchak also added two kills in the stretch. Illinois battled back to pull within two at 6-4 an 7-5, but a Jones kill put Purdue up 8-5 at the changeover and two more blocks by Drewry pushed the score to 10-5. Illinois scored three of the next four to cut it to three at 11-8 and force a Boilermaker timeout. A nit violation, an ace by Nichol and a Turner putaway made it 14-8 Purdue. After an Illini block, UI was whistled for blocking the set for the final Purdue point at 15-9.

The Boilermakers (15-8, 8-5 Big Ten) return to action at 8 p.m. ET Saturday when they take on Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.