Given his choice, Pete Waite would rather see his University of Wisconsin volleyball team win big like it did in the first two games of Wednesday night's match against Illinois night rather than go down to the wire like it did in the third and final game.

But at this point in the season, especially coming off their shakiest two-match weekend of the season, Waite knows he can't be too choosy.

That's why he and the Badgers were wearing the smiles that were missing last weekend after a 30-14, 30-23, 30-28 victory over the Illini before a crowd of 3,875 at the UW Field House.

If one likes their volleyball relaxed, then take the first two games when the Badgers ran out to big early leads and coasted to victories.

If one likes their volleyball intense, then take the third game that featured 15 ties and nothing larger than a two-point lead for either team before the No. 11 Badgers scored the final four points to improve to 13-2 in the Big Ten Conference and 21-3 overall.

Illinois fell to 7-8, 15-10.

"I don't like to be in the position we were in in the third game, but we talk about character and talk about coming back, staying strong and not folding, and that's so important," Waite said. "We weren't able to break away from them in that game, but it was so good to finish it in three instead of going to a fourth (game), and that was one of our goals."

After a loss to Michigan State on Friday and being pushed to five games in a squeaker over Northwestern on Saturday, the Badgers bounced back against an Illini team that had won six of seven Big Ten road matches.

In the first game, they countered four service errors with four aces and just one hitting error in 23 attempts. In the second game, they ran off six straight points off Jocelyn Wack's serve to grab an 8-4 lead that eventually grew to 17-9.

"We definitely had a little extra motivation," senior setter Jackie Simpson said, recalling the struggles of the last two matches. "We came out playing our volleyball and relaxing."

The Badgers also set the defensive tone in those first two games, limiting Illinois' two best hitters — left side Laura DeBruler and middle Vicki Brown. DeBruler, who came in leading the conference with an average of five kills per game, was held to seven in the first two games, while Brown had six. DeBruler finished with 13 kills and Brown 12.

"We took two very good hitters who have been doing well all season and really kept their hitting percentages and kill totals down," Waite said.

The Badgers, who made just four hitting errors in the first two games and 10 for the match, hit .362 with 48 kills in 105 attempts.

That hitting percentage was the best against Illinois this season.

Senior middle Taylor Reineke led the Badgers with 13 in 20 attempts. Sophomore left side Caity DuPont added 11 in 18 attempts with just one error for a career-best .556 hitting percentage.

DuPont's hitting error came at 14-6 of the first game, giving her 10 clean scores without a mistake.

Two of those kills came late in the third game when she gave the Badgers a momentary 23-22 lead and then closed the Illini's lead to 26-25.

"Confidence is a big thing," said DuPont, who translated some solid play last weekend into more playing time this match.