Several Big Ten teams were in action on Thursday night. The Michigan State baseball team lost 7-0 to the Lansing Lugnuts in the sixth annual Crosstown Showdown at Cooley Law School Stadium in Downtown Lansing. Watch a recap of the game now and dive inside this post for Student U highlights of the Ohio State men’s volleyball team beating Grand Canyon.
The Illinois volleyball team came up short in the national championship, falling 3-1 to UCLA on Saturday in the Alamodome. The Illini turned in the best finish in school history with the second-place showing and ended the year with an overall record of 32-5. Read FightingIllini.com’s full recap, see the box score and check out the team’s photo gallery.
Illinois advanced to the school’s first NCAA volleyball championship match with a win over USC in five sets (25-27, 25-18, 25-22, 18-25, 15-10). Illinois will face UCLA for the title on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET live on ESPN2. Relive an entire live blog at FightingIllini.com, check out their photo gallery, and find the entire updated interactive tournament bracket at NCAA.com. NCAA.com also has video highlights. You can also follow the Illinois volleyball team’s Twitter account @IlliniVball. Earlier, UCLA advanced to its first national championship match since 1994 with a sweep of Florida State in the other semifinal (25-16, 25-17, 25-21).
In today’s Big Ten Blast, we touch on Illinois advancing to the National Semifinal round of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament for the third time in school history and the first time in 23 years. The Illini reached back-to-back Final Fours in 1987 and 1988. In Thursday’s NCAA Semifinal Match Illinois (31-4) faces USC (29-4) at 9 p.m. ET. Read more at FightingIllini.com and track the entie tournament at NCAA.com. In other news, Jerry Sandusky waived his preliminary hearing. Find the latest headlines on the Penn State scandal on the team report page.
BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart has been answering your football and men's basketball questions in his weekly BTN.com mailbag. Got a Big Ten question for our expert? Fire it in and read his previous answers.
Want to watch BTN online? Participating cable & satellite providers offer BTN2Go, a free streaming service with a live 24/7 feed of BTN and Extra Football Game Channels. Get details on the App for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. 
