Hawaii All-American senior outside hitter Kim Willoughby knocked down 28 kills against Illinois, knocking the Illini out of the NCAA Tournament.

No. 2 Hawaii defeated No. 15 Illinois in the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament in three games behind Willoughby's impressive performance on Friday night in Honolulu, 30-21, 30-22 and 33-31.

"We didn't fire on all cylinders in the first two games and against Hawaii we needed to hit on all cylinders," said Illinois head coach Don Hardin.

Illinois ended the season 26-7, the team's winningest season since 1992.

In the third game Illinois trailed 29-26 and scored three consecutive points to tie the game off a kill by junior outside hitter Jessica Belter and a block followed by a kill by senior outside hitter Melissa Vandrey. Kills by Willoughby (.420 hitting percentage) and fellow Rainbow Wahine All-American, senior outside hitter Lily Kahumoku (14 kills, .419 hitting percentage) gave Hawaii the victory.

"They discovered they could play at that (top) level and they almost pushed it over the top," Hardin said.

Belter led the Illini attack against Hawaii recording 13 kills while hitting .385. Senior outside hitter Shelly O'Bryan added 10 kills and hit .368. O'Bryan found success against the Rainbow Wahine by running the backslide, a play where O'Bryan would run around the setter from the left side and hit the volleyball on the right side of the setter.

"Once we started playing we saw (the backslide) wasn't their strong block," O'Bryan said.

The Illini credit adjusting the block and relaxing as the reasons behind their improved play in the third game. Hardin changed the Illinois rotation before the game so Belter would block against Kahumoku. In the Illini's normal rotation she would have blocked against Willoughby, but Hardin planned on trying to stop Kahumoku.

Willoughby began the game-registering kills every time she touched the ball so Hardin was forced to change his lineup and put Belter on Willoughby.

"On paper it was a good strategy but it didn't pan out," Hardin said.

In addition to the Illini slowing down Willoughby after the blocking change, the Illini settled down and just played volleyball.

"We finally relaxed and just started playing our game," O'Bryan said. "It took us a while to relax."

For Illinois seniors O'Bryan, Vandrey and middle blocker Lisa Argabright, their careers as Illini have come to a close.

"It won't fully set in until the spring and I'm not part of the (practices)," O'Bryan said. "This has been an awesome four years and I wouldn't change it for the world."

The Illini who return next year have something to build off. Belter called the Hawaii match a "big positive" going into the offseason and Hardin has already seen the team begin to build off of this year's successful season.

"We already have leadership talking about the upcoming season," Hardin said. "This is a very healthy position to be in."