[media-credit name=’AJ Maclean’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The Wisconsin volleyball team tasted defeat Friday for the first time since Oct. 8, as the Badgers went down to the Illinois Fighting Illini in convincing fashion. Wisconsin (16-6, 10-4) fell to Illinois (17-6, 9-5) at Huff Hall in Champaign 3-0, by scores of 27-30, 20-30, 30-32. The loss snaps an eight-match winning streak for UW, which remains in fourth place in the Big Ten standings.

“I don’t think we brought the energy to match what Illinois has here on the home floor,” Wisconsin head coach Pete Waite said. “We matched up better with them the third game, we were closer with them the whole time but we still didn’t step up when the time was right. Credit to Illinois, they’ve been doing great at home and not so great on the road.”

After a kill by Sheila Shaw, Wisconsin took a 4-3 lead in game one, but that slim margin proved to be the last advantage held by the Badgers in the opener. Illinois quickly went on the offensive and stormed out to an 11-4 lead, thanks in part to three consecutive blocks.

The Badgers did eventually recover and clawed back into the contest late. A kill from Shaw drew UW within three at 28-25, forcing an Illini timeout. Wisconsin continued its charge with a kill from Aubrey Meierotto and a hitting error by Illinois’ Rachel VanMeter, making the score 28-27. However, the Illini went right back to VanMeter and the junior put away a left-side set to extinguish the rally. A bad set by Wisconsin then gave the game to Illinois.

“We’re still a young team,” Waite said. “We’re a team that needs to learn how to play on the road and get the wins and play as well as you do at home.”

UI set the tone in the second game by notching the contest’s first three points and jumping out to a commanding 20-9 lead. UW made another rally, but the Illinois advantage was simply too large, and Wisconsin fell in game two 30-20 and went into the locker room down two games to none.

The Badgers showed signs of life in game three, taking an early 4-1 lead — their first advantage since leading 4-3 in game one — and leading as late as 18-17 after a kill from Shaw. Once again, though, the Illini put together a run and grabbed the lead after a kill from VanMeter and consecutive hitting errors by the Badgers. Wisconsin came back to tie the score at 29-29 and again at 30-30 on Shaw kills, but in the end Illinois was too tough on its home floor. Meghan Macdonald slammed a kill to allow UI to serve for match point and Jessica Belter and Jen Hynds teamed up to block Meierotto, giving Illinois the game 32-30 and the match 3-0.

“That’s not what we wanted to do, coming in here,” said UW senior opposite hitter and Geneva, Ill., native Jill Odenthal. “We knew it was a tough place to play and we just didn’t perform well. We played rattled the first two games. We stepped it up in the third but didn’t come through.”

Shaw led Wisconsin with 14 kills, the only Badger to finish in double figures. Odenthal was second on the squad with eight kills and a .316 hitting percentage. Meierotto added seven slams.

“Tonight, a few people were just off,” Waite said. “That was partially due to Illinois’ play — very aggressive and it created some problems on our side of the net.”

Illinois was led by VanMeter, who tallied a match-high 18 kills on 53 total attacks.

“She’s definitely a good hitter,” Meierotto said of VanMeter. “She hit a lot of shots and I think our block wasn’t as set up as we would have liked.”

The Illini also got a boost from Hynds, who contributed nine kills while hitting .467. As a team, Illinois out-hit Wisconsin .214 to .167 and out-blocked UW 11.0 to 7.0. The match was a stark contrast to the 3-1 victory the Badgers handed the Illini Oct. 3 in Madison. In that meeting, Wisconsin hit .321 to Illinois’ .241. The Badgers also recorded 16.5 blocks as a team.

“They did a great job, don’t get me wrong, but I think it was mostly our game that made a huge difference,” Odenthal said. “Our passing wasn’t as good, our defense wasn’t as good and we didn’t follow our game plan as well as we should have.”

Wisconsin hopes to learn from its mistakes when it hits the road this weekend to take on Penn State and Ohio State.

“It will be a big motivator for them,” Waite said of the loss. “They’re not going to be down about this. They’re going to be working harder in the gym to get better. When we walk on the court again in an away match, they’ll be tougher for it.”