Sept. 8, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The third-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team swept Colgate in three games (30-10, 30-13, 30-14) Saturday morning. The Nittany Lions improve to 5-1 while the Raiders fall to 2-6.
Sophomore outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) led all players with 15 kills on .583 hitting as junior outside hitter Nicole Fawcett (Zanesfield, Ohio) posted 13 kills and junior middle hitter Christa Harmotto (Aliquippa, Pa.) notched 10 kills on an errorless 14 attacks to hit a season-high .714. Redshirt freshman Blair Brown (Purcellville, Va.) and freshman Arielle Wilson (Broadview, Ill.) each provided five kills, with Brown's coming on .556 hitting. As a team, Penn State attacked at a season-high .469 clip while holding Colgate -.011.
Sophomore setter Jessica Yanz (Bolingbrook, Ill.) dished out 35 assists as Hodge provided nine digs to lead the squad. Freshman libero Alyssa D'Errico (Byron, Ill.) notched seven digs as 12 different players recorded a dig in the match. Yanz posted six digs, senior Kate Price (Fraser, Mich.) recorded five, Fawcett and Harmotto provided four apiece and junior Roberta Holehouse (Joppa, Md.) along with senior Ann Naylor (Los Angeles, Calif.) both tallied three digs.
The Nittany Lions dominated from behind the service line, racking up 11 aces to the Raiders' two. Fawcett, Yanz and D'Errico all notched two aces as Brown, Naylor, senior Kara Callahan (Bloomington, Ill.) and sophomores Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) and Kelsey Ream (State College, Pa.) all recorded one ace.
Penn State also controlled the blocking game, leading 10.0 to 0.0. Hodge and Wilson each posted five blocks, a career-high mark.
Casey Ritt led Colgate with five kills as Erin Kanetzke and Katrina Zawojski both recorded four kills.
Penn State faces Virginia Commonwealth at 2:00 p.m. to close out action in the Penn State Classic.