BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Jenna Smith scored a game-high 21 points – in the process breaking the Illinois career scoring record – as the Illini pounded Western Kentucky 68-51 on Friday night to advance to the second round of the Women's NIT.

With the win, the Illini will face Marquette at 4 p.m. Monday at the Assembly Hall, where they lost to the Golden Eagles 65-55 on Dec. 9.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Illinois sophomore Andrew Riley broke his own school record to advance to the finals of the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor track meet Friday.

Riley finished second in his heat with a time of 7.61 seconds. It was the third-fastest time among the qualifiers.

ORANGE PARK, Fla. – Illinois' Hailey Koschmann posted a wire-to-wire victory Tuesday at the JMU Eagle Landing Invitational.

Koschmann had a final-round 75 (214 total) to finish 3 strokes ahead of Chattanooga's Emma de Groot.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Paul Ruggeri (parallel bars, high bar) and Tyler Mizoguchi (rings, all-around) won a pair of events Sunday, leading the fourth-ranked Illinois men's gymnastics team to an impressive 357.500-346.600 victory against No. 10 Iowa.

The Illini (10-0, 8-0 Big Ten) posted a season-high team score en route to winning five of six individual events.

CHAMPAIGN – Dennis Nevolo, Abe Souza and Stephen Hoh posted singles wins as No. 12 Illinois defeated Northwestern 4-1 on Saturday, the Illini's 18th straight victory against the Wildcats.

Nevolo won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 singles against Spencer Wolf. Souza was a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victor at No. 2, while Hoh cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 5.

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The Illinois baseball team can take plenty of positives from its 7-5 loss to East Carolina on Friday at the seventh annual Keith LeClair Classic.

The Illini, who got two RBI apiece from Willie Argo and Aaron Johnson, led the 19th-ranked Panthers 4-3 before surrendering a four-run seventh.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Senior Angela Bizzarri won her second Big Ten title of the weekend Sunday, breaking her own school record en route to the 5,000-meter crown.

"Angela had a great weekend," Illini coach Tonja Buford-Bailey said. "She's got two more Big Ten titles under her belt, so she should be very happy to go out like that as a senior."

COLUMBUS, Ga. – The Illinois softball team continued the best start in its history Friday, defeating No. 22 Florida State 4-3 and Mississippi Valley State 12-2 at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.

The Illini (11-1) beat the Seminoles in dramatic fashion, using freshman Jessica Davis' walkoff homer in the seventh. Trailing 4-0, Illinois narrowed the gap in the sixth on Hope Howell's three-run homer.