'Cats Visit Illinois, then Host Rutgers on Senior Night

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Northwestern volleyball (7-14, 0-10 B1G) will close out the month of October with another split weekend, visiting Illinois (14-7, 6-4 B1G) on the road on Thursday before hosting Rutgers (10-12, 1-9 B1G) for Senior Night on Saturday. Thursday’s match is scheduled for an 8 p.m. CT first serve on Big Ten Network, and Saturday’s match will begin at 7 p.m. on B1G+.

Though Northwestern fell to both Michigan and No. 12 Purdue last weekend, first-year setter Ellie Stiernagle continued her impressive debut campaign, adding 55 assists to her season total. That pushed her past 700 for the year, making her just the eighth first year in Division I volleyball to reach that mark this season. In addition, her team-high 10 assists against the Boilermakers on Sunday helped her to her sixth double-double of the season.

At a position that has been plagued by injuries during Big Ten play, a pair of middle blockers stepped up for the ‘Cats as well. On Thursday, first-year Maya Stillwell collected seven kills on .417 hitting against Michigan, marking her second match in a row and her sixth this season with four or more kills on a .400 or better attack percentage. Then, on Sunday, Gabrielle Gerry matched her career high with six kills on .455 hitting to go along with a pair of blocks in West Lafayette.

First up for Northwestern this weekend will be a 14-7 Illinois team that has been in and out of the AVCA/Taraflex Top 25 this season. The Illini picked up back-to-back ranked victories over then-No. 15 Minnesota and then-No.23 USC in September, then followed it up with a sweep of then-No. 22 Washington to open October. They then lost four of their next five before winning both matches last weekend, against Maryland and Rutgers.

The ‘Cats and the Illini last met in the 2025 season finale, when Northwestern picked up its first road win over Illinois since 2008. That broke a streak of 12 straight victories for the Illini over the ‘Cats in Champaign. Northwestern has faced Illinois more than any other team in program history, and the Wildcats hold a 33-67 record against the Illini all-time.

Northwestern has won eight of the last nine meetings against Rutgers and will enter play on Saturday with a 14-2 all-time record against the Scarlet Knights. Rutgers’ only victories over Northwestern came on October 27, 2019, in Piscataway and November 23, 2024, in Evanston. Rutgers has dropped seven straight matches in conference action after picking up its only conference win against Ohio State on Oct. 1. The Scarlet Knights will visit No. 11 Purdue on Thursday before heading to Evanston for Saturday’s match.

After this weekend’s action concludes, Northwestern will prepare to travel to the West Coast for matches at Oregon and Washington next weekend. The ‘Cats will visit Washington for a 9 p.m. CT match next Friday, then head to Eugene for an 8 p.m CT match against the Ducks on Sunday.