Sept. 27, 2008
University Park, Pa. - The top-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team hit .453 en route to a three-game sweep of No. 20 Illinois (25-16, 25-19, 25-12) Saturday afternoon at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions remain unbeaten at 14-0 and 2-0 in league play, and have yet to drop an individual set this season. The Fighting Illini fall to 10-3 overall and even their Big Ten record to 1-1.
"I thought we played much better today than last night," said head coach Russ Rose. "Roberta and Alisha were significantly better and Christa was very good. We were able to get the ball to Arielle who had a strong match and I thought Nicole hit the ball well. Illinois has a very big block on the right side and they are a very good team. We went five with them last year so our players are very aware what they are capable of. We did things well today that we needed to and I feel much better about this match than I did last night."
Junior outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) led all players with 13 kills on .423 hitting as senior outside hitter Nicole Fawcett (Zanesfield, Ohio) posted 12 kills on .321 hitting. Senior middle hitter Christa Harmotto (Aliquippa, Pa.) connected on eight of her 12 attacks to hit .583 and sophomore middle hitter Arielle Wilson (Broadview, Ill.) was nearly perfect with seven kills on an errorless eight swings to hit a season-high .875. Sophomore opposite Blair Brown (Purcellville, Va.) posted five kills on .333 hitting as the Nittany Lions attacked at a .453 clip for the match, their seventh match hitting better than .400 this season.
Junior setter Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) dished out 36 assists and senior libero Roberta Holehouse (Joppa, Md.) led all players with 16 digs as Fawcett chipped in seven digs and led the team with two aces.
Penn State outblocked Illinois, 10.0 to 5.0. Harmotto and Wilson led the way with five stuffs each as Fawcett contributed four and Brown posted assisted on two.
Kylie McCulley led the Fighting Illini with nine kills as Johannah Bangert and Laura DeBruler each provided five kills. Hillary Haen and Lizzie Bazzetta directed the offense with 11 and 10 assists, respectively, as Ashley Edinger led the defense with 10 digs. Bangert led the blocking front with three stuffs.
An Illinois service error and consecutive Hodge kills broke the 11-11 stalemate in the first set and three straight kills from Harmotto, Hodge and Fawcett extended the Penn State lead to 18-13. The Nittany Lions remained in control, going up 22-16 on kills from Hodge and Wilson before two Fawcett and Wilson blocks aided Penn State in taking the first game, 25-16. Hodge pounded seven kills on .545 hitting in the stanza while Wilson added two kills and four blocks.
The second stanza again remained even early on, with a Harmotto and Hodge block giving Penn State the 7-5 lead. Two Fawcett kills made it 11-9 and another Fawcett kill coupled with back to back aces pushed the score to 15-11. Two Hodge kills along with a Harmotto put-away extended the score to 21-15 before a Hodge kill ended the game, 25-19. It was Fawcett with seven kills in the set as Holehouse collected five digs.
Penn State broke open the third game early, taking the 10-4 lead aided by kills from Harmotto, Fawcett and Brown, along with blocks from Harmotto and Brown. Consecutive overpass kills from Glass pushed the score to 14-5 and two Harmotto kills gave Penn State the 21-9 advantage before Hodge and Harmotto finishes gave the Lions the game, 25-12. Harmotto collected four kills on an errorless five swings to hit .800 and Hodge, Fawcett and Brown all posted three kills as Glass and Wilson chipped in two.
The Nittany Lions have a split week, traveling to Indiana on Wednesday, Oct. 1 for a 7:00 p.m. ET contest before returning home to host Michigan State on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 7:00 p.m. Both matches will be aired live on the Big Ten Network. The match with Michigan State will be the "Dig Pink" match, as Penn State volleyball partners with the Sideout Foundation for the fight against breast cancer. Fans are encouraged to wear pink to the match and to visit the women's volleyball page of www.GoPSUsports.com to donate to the cause.
For more information on the Penn State women's volleyball team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com. The Penn State women's volleyball 2008 season is presented by Rockvale Outlets and The Outlets At Hershey.