McLean County Times

The Illinois State volleyball team will host the Linda Herman Volleyball Classic this weekend in Normal, Illinois. The event features matches against Miami (Fla.), Cincinnati, and Illinois over three days.

The schedule begins on September 12 with a match against Miami at 5:30 p.m., followed by Cincinnati on September 13 at 4 p.m., and concludes with Illinois on September 14 at 2 p.m.

Through six matches and 22 sets this season, Illinois State is averaging three blocks per set, ranking them eleventh nationally in that category.

In their most recent contest, the Redbirds defeated Butler in five sets. The second set required 34 points to secure the win, marking the second-highest set score for ISU since the NCAA adopted the 25-point scoring system in 2008. Only once before has ISU recorded a higher set score—35 points—in a match against Utah State during the opening of the 2011 season.

A member of the team received her second career Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Player of the Week honor after posting 29 kills over nine sets during opening weekend. She is averaging 3.22 kills per set with a .278 hitting percentage and stands as one of two MVC players averaging at least three kills and digs per set. She also ranks inside the top-15 conference-wide for kills per set, hitting percentage, aces per set, and digs per set. The player led ISU in kills in two out of three matches last week, recording a season-high twelve against DePaul and eleven more versus Oakland.

By sweeping their opening weekend matches this year, Illinois State won nine consecutive sets. They extended that streak to eleven by taking two more sets from Loyola—the second-longest such streak to start a season in program history.

At recent tournaments, Aida Shadewald earned Most Valuable Player honors at Western Michigan’s event while teammates Arianna Rossi and Ruth Ziegler joined her on that All-Tournament Team. Logan Grevengoed was later named to an All-Tournament Team at another competition.

Illinois State returns eight student-athletes who started at least nine matches last year and welcomes what is considered its strongest recruiting class ever. As a result, coaches picked ISU to finish third in this year’s Missouri Valley preseason poll; Aida Shadewald and Khenedi Guest were selected for preseason All-MVC honors.

Historically, Illinois State holds different records against each opponent participating in this weekend’s classic: they are 1-2 all-time versus Miami (with their only win coming during the 2012 Redbird Classic), hold a commanding series lead over Cincinnati at 15-6—including wins in their last two meetings—and are tied with Illinois at thirty-two wins apiece; ISU last beat Illinois on September 17, 2022.