CHICAGO — Illinois wrapped up its first-ever Big Ten Volleyball Media Days appearance on Tuesday, with head coach Chris Tamas, redshirt-senior setter Diana Brown, and senior middle blocker Kennedy Collins all making the trip up to Chicago to represent the Fighting Illini at the two-day event.
The Illini participated in the second day of festivities alongside six other conference schools, including reigning Big Ten and national champion Wisconsin. After finishing 22-12 overall and 12-8 in conference action, Illinois heads into 2022 with high expectations following aN NCAA Sweet 16 appearance last year.
With Illini student-athletes returning to campus soon ahead of the start of practices on August 9, let’s take a look at a few of the biggest takeaways and talking points from Illinois’ inaugural media days experience.
Tamas and the Illini take pride in building their roster through recruiting
Though the NCAA has implemented rules allowing players to more easily transfer without having to sit out for entire seasons, Illinois has focused more on bringing in talent through high school recruiting than via the transfer portal.
The Illini roster may have lost Megan Cooney, Taylor Kuper, and Kylie Bruder, but Tamas has brought in several new faces to Champaign. Illinois welcomes four newcomers, three of which are incoming freshmen: setter Bianca May, middle blocker Cari Bohm, and outside hitter Sophie Stephenson. The fourth player is a transfer, sophomore outside/opposite hitter Kayla Burbage, who joins Illinois after leaving Missouri.
Burbage started 24 of the Tigers’ 28 matches as a freshman, leading the team in total blocks while ranking third with 211 kills.
“We’ve had a transfer every year. I think one every year to be exact and that’s going to happen,” Tamas said. “But overall I’m pretty big on loyalty. I’m not looking to make the transfer portal a big priority moving forward. But for those players that are out there, maybe didn’t find a great fit the first time around, we feel like we’ve created a good culture and we’ve had a good thing going and we’re happy to accept anyone that wants to be with us.”
High school recruitment is expanding to outside the Midwest
As a Big Ten institution, Illinois has firmly established itself as a dynamic recruiter in the Midwest. Out of the 16 players on this season roster, 13…
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