2017 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball National Championship

Illinois First-Year Head Coach Chris Tamas Ready For A Reunion In Lincoln

Illinois First-Year Head Coach Chris Tamas Ready For A Reunion In Lincoln

Just under a year ago, Chris Tamas was hunkered down in the Nebraska volleyball offices, getting ready to host Illinois, but now, the roles have flipped.

Oct 18, 2017 by Megan Kaplon
Illinois First-Year Head Coach Chris Tamas Ready For A Reunion In Lincoln
Just under a year ago, Chris Tamas was hunkered down in the Nebraska volleyball offices, getting ready to host Illinois. Alongside head coach John Cook and fellow assistant Dani Busboom Kelly, Tamas built the scouting report that helped the Huskers sweep the Fighting Illini for the second time in the 2016 season.

A lot has changed since then. In February, former Illinois head coach Kevin Hambly replaced retired Stanford coach John Dunning, and shortly thereafter Illinois offered Tamas the head coaching position in Champaign.

This week, Tamas and his Fighting Illini staff, which includes Jason Mansfield, Rashinda Reed, and Tamas' wife Jen, are looking for weaknesses in the Nebraska lineup as they prepare to battle the Huskers on Saturday in Lincoln.

Chris Tamas Illinois 2017
USA Today Sports

"We spent a lot of hours working with [the Nebraska] crew, so I think whenever you return to any place that you've had a good relationship with, it will just be more fun than anything and be good to see everyone again," Tamas said. "But if they know me well, they know we like to compete, so they better be ready."

Nebraska is locked in a tie with Penn State for first place in the Big Ten, and the Huskers recently defeated three top-10 opponents in the span of eight days. They're formidable opponents, leading the all-time series with Illinois 23-7-1.

But Tamas comes into the match with quite a bit of insider knowledge.

"I know a few things," he admitted. "But it just comes down to execution at the end of the day. There's some things that we can exploit just like you can with any team, but if you can't pass, then you can't exploit anything. Or if you can't serve, you can't hold them to doing certain things. It comes down to the serve and pass game, and if those go well then we'll see if we can exploit some things that we see on film and from what I know from their history."

If they know me well, they know we like to compete, so they better be ready.

One other thing Tamas and his Illinois team have going for them is the nation's top blocker Ali Bastianelli. The junior middle boasts a 1.80 blocks per set average, and ranks fourth nationally with a .448 hitting percentage.

"We've been trying to take [Ali's] blocking game, as good as it is, to the next level," Tamas said. "We talk a lot about positioning. Her reads have always been good; we're talking about hand positioning and arm positioning, and what she's seeing once she's going up against a good hitter."

Bastianelli has always been good on defense. Her freshman year, she ranked 11th in the country in blocks per set and second in the Big Ten. As a sophomore, she set the pace nationally with 1.79 blocks per set. This year, she's once again first on the blocking list, but it's her offensive game that's elevated to a whole new level.

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"I was a setter, and my wife Jen was a middle, as well as my assistant Rashinda, so we all see those two positions as being really important," Tamas said.

Thanks to that focus on running the middle, Bastianelli gets almost as many sets as Illinois' two outside hitters -- and more than starting opposite Megan Cooney -- and she's still hitting almost .500.

"We slowed down the set from when we first got here. They went really fast last year. We just didn't feel like her arm swing was made for that," Tamas explained. "We'll give her a little bit more time to make a decision. She's really good about seeing the block and when the set's not there or when there's a big blocker in front of her, she's able to choose a shot that works a little bit better in those situations."

Luckily, the set's usually on point with honorable mention All-American Jordyn Poulter dishing the rock. Tamas called the junior setter "one of the top competitors I've ever coached." Keep in mind, Tamas coached at Nebraska when they won a national championship in 2015 and was an assistant at Minnesota in 2011 and 2012; he's coached plenty of tough cookies.

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The 2017 Illini squad includes only four upperclassmen, and one of them might be out of commission for a while. Senior libero Brandi Donnelly went down with a knee injury in the Illini's October 6 match versus Purdue. Although Tamas said she's already started rehabbing, he didn't have an estimate of when his honorable mention All-American libero would be back on the court.

Tamas tapped freshman Morgan O'Brien to wear the libero jersey in Donnelly's place, and the Illini went on to take down Indiana, Ohio State, and Maryland and move into a three-way tie for third place in the Big Ten.

Morgan O'Brien and Brandi Donnelly Illinois 2017
USA Today Sports

"When Brandi went down, we talked a lot about more the response as a unit -- as a passing unit and a defensive unit," Tamas said. "Technically, Morgan's been pretty sound back there, we're just trying to get them to communicate a little bit more just to kind of smooth things out."

Given Tamas' comment about needing to master the serve and pass game in order to execute the game plan versus Nebraska, a solid performance from O'Brien, as well as defensive specialists Emmaline Walters, Caroline Welsh, and Annika Gereau, will be an essential ingredient to an Illini upset.

But before they can tackle the 100-pound gorilla that is Nebraska, the Fighting Illini face Iowa on Thursday in Iowa City. Although it doesn't have the same drama of former Husker assistant returning to Lincoln for the first time, Illinois' match versus Iowa will be key when it comes to conference standings, and in all likelihood, every point will be a battle.

Iowa is 3-5 in the Big Ten but 14-7 overall, and just returned home from a trip to Minneapolis where it gained a 22-19 advantage over Minnesota in the first set before losing in three.

"Iowa's the focus right now, and the team's been really good about taking one match at a time and one point at a time. We try not to get too far ahead of ourselves," Tamas said. "When we talked about goals for the season, their first goal was Gonzaga. Beat Gonzaga."

Brandi Donnelly Illinois 2017
USA Today Sports

Not only did the Illini accomplish that first goal when they beat Gonzaga in a dominant 3-0 sweep, but they also set a program record with a .650 team hitting percentage in a win over Western Kentucky on September 2. The Hilltoppers haven't lost a match since that meeting.

In its first home weekend, Illinois hosted Stanford and Colorado, and although they finished the weekend 0-2, Tamas celebrated many positive takeaways, including the confidence boost that accompanies being toe-to-toe at the end of sets with the reigning national champions.

The Illini have a chance to make some noise this year, but with a young coach and a young team, the next couple of years look even more promising.

"Whenever a new coach comes in, it's just kind of getting used to overall how is the team going to respond to my style of play and trying to get everyone on the same page," Tamas said. "The biggest thing is just making sure that we're communicating well about what we want to see, how we want to do things, and make sure we're pointing it out when we see those things. The team's done really well with responding to a lot of my challenges."