CHAMPAIGN — University of Illinois junior Alex Chinn has seen ugly products from Illinois athletics’ two revenue-generating sports (football and basketball) during his time on campus. Chinn is the rare breed of student who regularly ventures out to Memorial Stadium to watch a football program that has won just four Big Ten games during Lovie Smith’s three years in Champaign. The basketball program hasn’t offered much more hope, missing five straight NCAA Tournaments.

That’s partly why Chinn — a member of the Spike Squad, the Illini volleyball student section — has immersed himself in Illinois volleyball. Chinn was one of 3,754 fans — including a hyped contingent of students — in attendance at Huff Hall on Saturday to watch the No. 3 overall seed Illini (30-3) advance to the Sweet Sixteen with a victory over Louisville (25-22, 26-28, 25-17, 25-18).

“People stay past halftime (at Huff),” Chinn said. “It's a packed crowd. I go to the football games too. I'm one of those people. But at halftime, everyone's gone. Here it's different. It's a different culture surrounding the program.”

Last year, Illinois coach Chris Tamas led the Illini to the Elite Eight in his first season. This season, the Illini earned their first top-five ranking since their national runner-up finish under former coach Kevin Hambly. The Champaign-Urbana community has long supported volleyball but has quickly embraced this winner even more.

Champaign resident — and father of Illini golfer Varun Chopra — Sanjiv Chopra loves coming to Huff. He’s followed the program for years, and though he supports a number of the school’s programs, Illinois volleyball has consistently provided him with teams he can get behind.

“I think they just have a culture of winning,” Chopra said. “Before Coach Tamas came here, Coach Hambly ran a good program. Now Coach Tamas is picking it up. They have a culture of winning.”

Plus, the Illini are loaded with the types of talented athletes that are fun to watch for Chopra. He’s seen a number come and go, but Chopra thinks this Illini team is special.

“This team is one of the better teams I've seen in a long time,” Chopra said. “They have senior leadership, Ali Bastianelli in the middle, Jordyn Poulter, they've got Jacqueline Quade, the junior. They’ve got stars in a lot of different places.”

The Illini’s home court was buzzing once again on Saturday night, packed with orange as it has been for the duration of the season and for much of recent history. And for good reason.

For the second straight year, the Illini are one of six Big Ten teams to punch a ticket to the Sweet Sixteen this season.

For those outside the league, it’s beginning to become clear that the path to and beyond the Sweet Sixteen means beating Big Ten opponents, something that can be made more difficult by the home environments at programs like Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Penn State and Minnesota.

Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly is well aware of that reality. She coached in the Big Ten herself, with Tamas, for two years as assistants at Nebraska.

When her Louisville team battled back to win the second set 28-26 after narrowly dropping the first, she noted that Illinois didn’t falter as other teams tend to after dropping a set at home.

“The Big Ten, they're battle-tested all year, they play great competition every single night,” Busboom Kelly said. “And they don't get rattled. There are not many sweeps in the Big Ten, it's not that they expect to lose a set, but it's certainly nothing new to them.”

After the Cardinals tied it up, Huff Hall took on a new intensity for the third set, one Illinois controlled fairly easily (25-17) after jumping ahead early.

Louisville senior Amanda Green, who hails from Illinois and played her high school ball at suburban Niles North, wasn’t fazed by the crowd (tied a match high with 17 kills), but she was impressed by the atmosphere at her home state’s flagship school.

“It was actually my first time here, it was kind of funny,” Green said. “It was a great atmosphere, I loved it. I was feeding off of it the entire match.”

And though Green wasn’t put off by the hostile crowd, Tamas knows many other players are affected when they come into Huff and are met by thousands of orange-clad Illinois fans.

His Illini are accustomed to the big stage, but No. 14 Marquette doesn’t play in environments like Huff night-in and night-out. Neither does San Diego, who plays No. 6 overall seed Wisconsin in the Sweet Sixteen and could face the Illini in the Elite Eight, should they get past Marquette.

“For a team to walk in here, those that aren't used to playing in this arena, not used to 4,000 people, all of a sudden you've got to play in this,” Tamas said. “We're used to playing at Nebraska in front of 8,000, we're used to playing at Wisconsin in front of (7,000), we're used to playing at all of these places that are really loud and obnoxious environments.”

Illinois isn’t quite at Nebraska and Wisconsin attendance numbers, partly because Huff Hall’s capacity is 4,050 — which is why athletics director Josh Whitman is searching for funding a hockey arena that would house four other teams, including volleyball — but the Illini average attendance is 2,741 this season, up from around 2,500 the previous two seasons which followed three straight years of average attendance topping 3,000.

Illini volleyball has won consistently and has done it in style while also providing fans with a memorable, positive experience on campus.

Agitated Illini football and basketball fans can get their taste of an Illini winner for a few more matches next weekend as the Illini get the chance to host two more matches (starting Friday against No. 14 overall seed Marquette) on their uber-local path to the Final Four, which will be held in Minneapolis.

Illinois volleyball is the best team on campus right now, and the short-term future and long-term future only seem brighter as the Illini on Saturday secured their ninth Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2008.

That winning feeling is what keeps fans like Chinn, Chopra and others coming back match-after-match, and sometimes year-after-year.

(It’s) the environment,” Chopra said. “Huff Hall and Illinois fans are rabid. They love (volleyball).”