Illinois volleyball is bracing for the impact of the Big Ten season, as the program will get some of the biggest tests early on.
No. 15 Minnesota visits Huff Hall on Thursday, September 24, and No. 23 USC follows on Saturday.
Both programs were picked to finish ahead of the Illini in the Big Ten preseason poll. The Golden Gophers, which were struck by injury in 2025, are projected to finish fifth. The Trojans are at No. 7 and Illinois is eyed at No. 10. This weekend is Illinois' first chance to dispute that.
The Orange and Blue have started to get rolling over the last few weeks. After a shaky 1-2 start that included a five-set loss to Cincinnati and a sweep at Tennessee, Illinois went 7-1 the rest of the way to finish non-conference play at 8-3.
That stretch, while it was positive overall, wasn't spotless. The Illini hit just .150 in a straight-set loss at Marquette, but they got revenge on the Golden Eagles just two days later in a five-set match that produced some of Illinois' best numbers in years.
They erased a four-point deficit late in the fifth set with a 7-0 run, and Alyssa Aguayo finished it with her seventh kill of the set on Illinois' third match point. The team piled up 73 kills, their most in a match since 2019, to go along with 86 digs, their most since 2021. Talita Goncalves accounted for 26 of those digs.
Illinois hasn't lost since. Paityn Chapman set a season high with 18 kills in a four-set win at Eastern Illinois, and the Illini closed the non-conference strong with sweeps of Arkansas and Arkansas State in Jonesboro.
The Arkansas win handed the Razorbacks their first loss in over two weeks. Illinois held them to an astounding .063 hitting percentage, their worst of the season. Aguayo (13), Chapman (12), and Taylor de Boer (11) all reached double digits in kills.
Kenna Phelan, a Fayetteville native, dished out 41 assists in her hometown. A day later, Chapman posted her fourth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 12 digs against Arkansas State. Phelan added one of her own with 37 assists and 10 digs. It was Illinois' sixth sweep of the young season.
Chapman has been the engine for this team all season. The Tennessee transfer led or tied for the team lead in kills in eight of Illinois' first nine matches and was tied for the most kills in the Big Ten through that stretch.
De Boer has put together four straight double-digit kill matches, and the offense has had some special nights where they've shown flashes of being a really dangerous team. At Rice, Illinois hit .494 as a team, its best mark since 2018.
Illinois volleyball vs #15 Minnesota
- Thursday, September 24
- 7:00 p.m. CT/8:00 p.m. ET
- Huff Hall
If Illinois is looking for a statement win, Thursday is the perfect opportunity to do so in front of the home crowd in Huff Hall. Minnesota has won the last 11 meetings in the series. The Illini's last win over the Golden Gophers came at Huff in 2017 against a Gopher team ranked No. 7 in the country. Minnesota leads the all-time series 47-39-1, and it swept Illinois in Minneapolis last October.
The Gophers come in at 6-2 and on a five-match winning streak. Their losses came to Arizona State and Florida, both ranked squads. Their most impressive win of the season so far came in Sioux Falls, where they swept then-No. 13 Creighton.
Minnesota limped into the Sweet 16 in 2025 behind Second Team All-American Julia Hanson, even without three of their main contributors for the majority of the season. A real testament to the fortitude of Keegan Cook's squad. This year, the offense has run through McKenna Wucherer.
The fifth-year outside hitter missed all of 2025 with a back injury and has come back looking like one of the best players in the country. She ranks No. 6 nationally at 4.8 kills per set, and her 146 kills are nearly double the next-best total on her team.
Wucherer put up 25 kills in back-to-back matches last weekend in Sioux Falls and was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the second time this season. "It feels so good to be free and play with my teammates after all that rehab I went through last year," Wucherer said after that weekend. She's also dangerous from the service line, where she leads the Big Ten at 0.75 aces per set.
Running the show is junior setter Stella Swenson, an All-Big Ten Second Team pick last season, who ranks No. 4 in the conference at 10.89 assists per set.
Illinois volleyball vs. No. 23 USC
- Saturday, September 26
- 7:00 p.m. CT/8:00 p.m. ET
- Huff Hall
USC is 6-4, but the record deserves some added context. The Trojans opened the season with a bang, sweeping then-No. 12 Arizona State. Their losses have come against three ranked squads: Creighton, Texas, and Colorado. Their fourth defeat came in an upset sweep to Pepperdine.
The Pepperdine loss came without two starters, middle blocker Leah Ford and opposite Abigail Mullen, as USC used a third different starting lineup in as many days. Mullen returned the next day as the Trojans bounced back, sweeping UC Santa Barbara.
This is a veteran group that went 25-7 last season, finished third in the Big Ten, and brings back six starters, including unanimous All-Big Ten outside hitter London Wijay. Mullen leads the team at 3.39 kills per set.
What the Women of Troy do best, though, is block. They lead the Big Ten at 3.04 blocks per set, No. 6 nationally, and junior middle blocker Mia Tvrdy just tied the Big Ten's rally-scoring era record with 16 blocks in their sweep over UC Santa Barbara.
The all-time series is tied 4-4. USC swept Illinois last November in Los Angeles, but the Trojans have yet to win at Huff Hall. Illinois is 2-0 against them in Champaign, most recently a five-set win in 2024.
What Illinois volleyball needs
Against Minnesota, everything starts with Wucherer. She's going to get her swings, so Illinois has to make them as uncomfortable as possible, both at the net and by serving tough enough to keep Swenson from running the offense on schedule.
Chapman and Kristina Starostenko combined for 13 blocks against Lindenwood, and that kind of presence on the right side will matter against a hitter carrying this much of the load. Illinois' passers also have to hold up against Wucherer's serve, since no one in the Big Ten has more aces per set.
Against USC, the challenge flips. The Illini hitters have to find ways around one of the best blocks in the country, which means tempo, smart shot selection, and not giving Tvrdy clean, straight-on swings to read.
It also means finishing sets. Illinois let a two-set lead get away against Cincinnati, needed five sets against Marquette after its hitting fell from .472 in the first set to .088 in the fourth, and showed some of the same pattern against Arkansas, hitting .429 in the first set before sliding to .225 and .179. Against Big Ten competition, those dips cost matches.
Illinois has spent the last three weeks proving it can win in a lot of different ways. This weekend will show whether they can do it against two teams that were picked to finish ahead of them, and against a Minnesota program it hasn't beaten in nine years.
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