CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) – Illinois volleyball plays seven matches before its home opener on the 2025 season.

The Illini are 1-1 after losing to South Dakota State and beating Vanderbilt to start the year. The team doesn’t play in Huff Hall until Sept. 20.

As many new faces get acquainted in Champaign, head coach Chris Tamas hopes to travel is a chance for his team to grow closer.

“Being on the road, I think it’s a time for the team to come together and figure out who they are as a group,” Tamas said. “Going to some of these battles in either neutral gyms or at opponent gyms, we’re going to have to do that in the Big Ten. So, you want big time matches to kind of test yourself and see how you’re going to respond when everything is not going your way.”

Players say they’re building relationships through trips to Iowa, Tennessee and soon Indiana and Kentucky.

“We have a lot of cohesion on and off the court,” Illinois redshirt sophomore Taylor De Boer said. “And so these bus trips have been really fun to get the freshmen their first experience and even the transfers. It’s their first experience with the team. Even after a long bus ride or even a loss in South Dakota and then a win on Vanderbilt, We still got on the bus and we’re still that same team that’s happy to talk to each other, to have those moments. We have our quiet naptime, but we’re always chatting it up at some point.”

Illinois visits Notre Dame on Friday then goes to No. 3 Louisville on Sunday.