The Illinois volleyball team has a new standout player each match.

Two weeks ago, sophomore outside hitter Rachel VanMeter and senior middle blocker Lisa Argabright led the Illini to wins over Penn State and Ohio State.

Last week it was junior outside hitter Jessica Belter against Michigan and Michigan State.

This weekend, senior outside hitter Melissa Vandrey and Argabright took turns in the staring role for the Illini (17-3, 8-2) in victories over Purdue (12-8, 5-5) in five games and Indiana (9-12, 2-8) in four games to extend Illinois' winning streak to six matches. With the wins, Illinois remains in a three-way tie for the conference title with Wisconsin and Minnesota.

"The theme of the season seems to be a different player, a different match, lights it up for us," Illinois head coach Don Hardin said.

Vandrey had a career high 30 kills while hitting .365 and recording nine digs against Purdue on Friday. Vandrey kept it going against Indiana with 15 kills and hitting .414.

"Vandrey hit good numbers again," Hardin said. "She took a lot of great swings to handle game three (against Indiana) for us."

Argabright was the Illini's first option all match against the Hoosiers. She had 22 kills, hit .559 and had four total blocks to go along with five digs.

"It was just fun," Argabright said. "The ball was there and the shot was open. I just went after it."

With the Illini not certain which player will have a breakout performance during any given match, Hardin looks to junior setter Erin Virtue to find the hot hand.

"I think the real player credit in this situation goes to Virtue for seeing it right away and milking what's working for all it's worth," Hardin said.

The Friday match with Purdue turned into a battle in the closing games. Illinois took a two-games-to-one lead, winning the third game 30-14, but Purdue regrouped and came back to win the fourth game and forced Illinois to win in five games.

"We came into it knowing they would play awesome and they did," Vandrey said. "I think this has to have been one of the hardest fought matches of the year so far."

Belter had 17 kills, 13 digs and hit .500. Junior libero Lauren Harks had a season high 19 digs while freshman defensive specialist Beth Vrdsky had a career high 14 digs.

"When you see a team across the net like Purdue and you have such tremendous respect for them, one thing you got to keep in mind is we're winning that match and playing better defense," Hardin said.

Saturday, the Illini offense powered through Indiana. The team hit .400 for the night. Illinois senior middle blocker Shelly O'Bryan tied a career high 16 kills and set a career high with a .682 hitting percentage.

Illinois finds itself in first place after ten matches for the first time under Hardin. The players, while excited to be the conference leader this late in the season, are not stopping to look at what they have done thus far this season.

"It's not something we are focusing on at all," O'Bryan said. "We've got to focus match to match. Otherwise, if we start focusing on the stuff on the outside we will start losing focus and drop matches."