Eleven years of losing to one opponent ended on a Thursday night in Champaign. Illinois volleyball, opening Big Ten play at Huff Hall on September 24, took down No. 15 Minnesota in four sets, won 25-22, 14-25, 25-18 and 25-22, the program’s first win over the Gophers since 2017 and its first ranked victory of the season. The Fighting Illini moved to 9-3 overall and 1-0 in the conference; Minnesota fell to 6-3, 0-1.
The NCAA tournament résumé needed it. An 8-3 nonconference run, as The News-Gazette’s Scott Richey noted, carried only one ranked test, a three-set sweep loss at Tennessee, and a best win over a .500 Marquette team. This was different. Illinois snapped an 11-match skid against Minnesota, closed the all-time series gap to 40-47-1, and posted its first ranked win anywhere since beating No. 10 Purdue on September 28, 2025.
How the Sets Went
Set one belonged to Minnesota’s errors. Seven pure hitting miscues and six more at the service line handed Illinois the opener, 25-22, after the Illini had led 18-14 and watched the Gophers knot it at 20. Minnesota cleaned up and swung big in the second, 25-14. Then came the response. Illinois scored six kills in a stretch to flip a 6-3 deficit into a 12-9 lead in the third, held serve from there, and won the fourth on a 4-0 closing run after trailing 22-21. Freshman Maya Harris served out the last three points of the match on her jump serve.
Chapman Takes Over
Paityn Chapman, the Tennessee transfer who has become Illinois’ steadiest offensive option, put down a team-high 15 kills, eight of them in the third set alone, on a career-high 48 attacks. “Chris came up to me and was like, ‘Paityn, the middle blocker is late. Just freaking swing at it,’” Chapman said of coach Chris Tamas. “I was like, ‘OK, say less. I’m good at that. I can do that.’” Her coach’s read matched. “We just told the team to stay aggressive and not overthink their game,” Tamas said, adding that “you’ve got to be able to go for it in this league.”
The disruption plan worked on Minnesota’s biggest weapon. “They’ve got one of the better outsides in the country in McKenna Wucherer.” Tamas said. “We did a nice job of just keeping them off the net enough and keeping them disrupted enough”, The Illini held the Gophers to a season-worst .215 hitting night while hitting .237 themselves, with Taylor de Boer adding 11 kills, Kristina Starostenko eight kills and four blocks, and Kenna Phelan running a fourth double-double on 37 assists and 10 digs. Talita Goncalves dug 19 balls on a 54-dig team night.
What the Win Means
Harris framed the week plainly. “Coming in as the ‘underdogs,’ we had nothing to lose.” The freshman called the match a launchpad: “It gives us a boost of confidence for the rest of the season to start off the Big Ten opener with a win.” Chapman described a locker room that stayed level after the second-set thrashing, calm, controlled, aware of what it could fix. Next up for Illinois: No. 23 USC at Huff Hall on Saturday night.
Sources
- Fighting Illini Open Big Ten Play With Four-Set Upset Win Over #15 Minnesota – University of Illinois Athletics
- Illinois knocks off No. 15 Minnesota – Yahoo Sports
