Illinois

Big Ten Daily (Sept. 4): Illinois Announces First Sellout Since 2016

Published

1 year ago

September 4, 2024

Big Ten Daily (Sept. 4): Illinois Announces First Sellout Since 2016

For the first time in nearly a decade, Illinois will play in front of a sold-out crowd at Memorial Stadium. This week, the Fighting Illini announced a sellout for Saturday’s showdown against No. 19 Kansas in Champaign.

Illinois hasn’t sold out a home game since the 2016 season. News of the sellout comes after Bret Bielema’s squad posted an impressive 45-0 victory over Eastern Illinois to open the 2024 campaign.

Prior to the sellout announcement, Bielema was hopeful that Illinois fans would gobble up tickets for Saturday’s clash.

“Excited about this opportunity to have a ranked team come in here to Memorial Stadium,” Bielema said. “I know our crowd is expected to be a good number. I think we’re within 1,000 [tickets] or so of being sold out for that game and put ourselves in a position to have a crowd where, unfortunately, or however you want to look at it, fortunately for us, we’re trying to build this thing up and get it to be more consistent. I think Saturday night is hopefully going to be a microcosm of that.”

The Illini played extremely well offensively in their season-opening win over Eastern Illinois. Quarterback Luke Altmyer threw for 213 yards with four touchdowns while completing 19-of-24 passes. Running back Kaden Faegin piled up 108 rushing yards and receiver Pat Bryant had 63 yards and a pair of touchdowns on five catches.

Defensively, Illinois forced four turnovers and held the Panthers to just 196 yards of offense.

Kansas presents a completely different challenge this week, with skilled quarterback Jalon Daniels coming to town. Illinois’ defensive front will be tested throughout the game.

Last year, Kansas defeated Illinois 34-23. Will the sellout crowd help the Fighting Illini get revenge on the Jayhawks?

Michigan State down three key players

Michigan State is already dealing with the injury bug. Coach Jonathan Smith revealed that the Spartans will be without three key contributors for the foreseeable future.

“(Receiver) Alante Brown will be hopeful to maybe November coming back. (Defensive back) Khalil Majeed doubtful to come back. (Defensive back) Dillon Tatum at least a couple of months, if not for the year,” Smith said during his weekly press conference. “Those three guys, which is a blow, with all three of them contributing, playing awesome, feel really bad for them, but they are longer-term injuries.”

Tatum is arguably the biggest loss of the bunch. Last year, he was responsible for 45 tackles and seven pass break-ups. Majeed ended last year with 19 stops and an interception.

Brown’s injury is a blow to Michigan State’s wide receiver depth. He didn’t put up big numbers last season, but was expected to be more of a factor in 2024.

Michigan State has no time to feel sorry for itself, opening Big Ten play this weekend against Maryland.

Nebraska volleyball swept by SMU

The college volleyball season is just beginning, and we’ve already seen an incredible amount of chaos. A day after No. 18 Minnesota upset No. 1 Texas, SMU took down No. 2 Nebraska in consecutive sets.

The Mustangs swept the Huskers 3-0 (5-23, 25-21, 25-18). It was Nebraska’s first loss to an unranked opponent since 2017. Coach John Cook was disappointed with the performance on Tuesday night in Dallas.

“We got punched in the mouth and we let them keep punching us,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “I’m pretty disappointed in how we responded tonight, but to be honest I saw this. This was all starting Saturday night. We talked about frustration and we didn’t fix it.

“We had a great practice last night, but we did not compete tonight. It was pretty disappointing.”

Penn State takes down Louisville

Penn State’s volleyball team picked up a huge win on Tuesday night, defeating No. 4 Louisville in a sweep. The seventh-ranked Nittany Lions took down the Cardinals 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-13).

Jess Mruzik led the Nittany Lions with 13 kills in the match. Caroline Jurevicious added 11 kills for Penn State. The defense held Louisville to a paltry .091 hitting percentage. Penn State also had five aces in the match.

Tuesday’s match was the first in front of a home crowd for Penn State.

“I thought it was great,” said coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, per the Daily Collegian. “Rec Hall is a special place to play. I’m grateful for the students and I hope we can continue to win and bring more of them here.”

Penn State is now 3-0 on the season.

BIG TEN PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Miller Moss (USC), Kevin Winston (Penn State), Mateen Bhaghani (UCLA), Dominic Zvada (Michigan) and Dylan Raiola (Nebraska) received Big Ten honors for Week 1. CLICK HERE

BIG TEN WEEK 1 OVERREACTIONS: Nick Saban swears on live television, Mike Gundy takes a shot at Michigan, “Huddy” for Heisman and Minnesota’s fireworks show highlight the overreactions. CLICK HERE

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Illinois

Central Illinois couple spends golden years serving others

Published

5 hours ago

December 25, 2025

Press Room

Central Illinois couple spends golden years serving others

PEORIA (25News Now) – One Central Illinois couple is spending their golden years trying to make the world a better place.

Sandy and Phillip Anton have been volunteering at Midwest Food Bank since 2022. Sandy interacts with clients, helping them get checked in and pick out good food. Phillip is the one who operates the overhead door so that volunteers can load up the vehicles. Both of them are trained in other roles as well.

“We’ve been aware, through family and community connections, of the need, of food insecurity. We know the need is out there. We made a purposeful decision to focus our retirement on food insecurity,” Sandy said.

The food bank praised the couple for their skill at interacting with the community. The organization do much of their work with the help of volunteers like the Antons.

You can watch 25News – any newscast, anywhere – streaming LIVE on 25NewsNow.com, our 25News mobile app, and on our WEEK 25News SmartTV streaming app. Learn more about how you can get connected to 25News streaming live news here.

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Illinois

Authorities: Woman’s BAC was nearly 3 times legal limit in Lombard, Illinois crash that injured family of 4

Published

17 hours ago

December 24, 2025

Press Room

Authorities: Woman’s BAC was nearly 3 times legal limit in Lombard, Illinois crash that injured family of 4

A woman was released on electronic monitoring Wednesday after authorities said she drove drunk and caused a crash that injured a family of four in Lombard, Illinois.

Among the injured was a 10-year-old boy.

Jaquelin Onofre Reyes, 27, appeared in DuPage County First Appearance Court on Wednesday morning. The DuPage County State’s Attorney’s office had asked to have Reyes detained on a charge of felony aggravated driving under the influence causing great bodily harm, but Judge Joshua Dieden denied the motion.

Onofre Reyes was instead released on electronic monitoring — with conditions that she may not possess or consume any alcohol or drugs.

Lombard police were called at 12:12 p.m. Tuesday for the crash at Route 53 and the Illinois Prairie Path.

Authorities said Onofre Reyes was driving a Hummer sport-utility vehicle south on Route 53 when she veered into the northbound lanes in an attempt to pass traffic in front of her. When Onofre Reyes tried to get back into the southbound lanes, she hit another car, crossed back into oncoming northbound traffic, and hit an Infiniti sport-utility vehicle headed north, authorities said.

Inside the Infiniti were a family of four, with two children ages 7 and 10. Everyone in the family was taken to the hospital, authorities said.

The 10-year-old boy suffered serious injuries and has been taken to another hospital for surgery, authorities said.

Police found that Onofre Reyes had two open containers of alcoholic beverages in her car at the time of the crash, authorities said. Her blood alcohol level was .238 — nearly three times the legal limit, authorities said.

“This incident involved a reckless and irresponsible individual who allegedly chose to operate a motor vehicle while impaired with complete disregard for the safety of others,” Lombard police Chief Joe Grage said in a news release. “Unfortunately, this decision led to a crash that caused significant injuries to innocent people.”

Onofre Reyes is due back in court on Jan. 20 in front of DuPage County Judge Ann Celine O’Hallaren Walsh.

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