Nov. 15, 2010
By Kelsey Detweiler, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 8 Penn State took care of both Wisconsin and Illinois this weekend to notch two more wins at home this season. The Nittany Lions have now won 88 consecutive matches in Rec Hall, which is the second best record in NCAA history.
The Nittany Lions defeated Wisconsin on Friday night in a straight sweep. Penn State won all three sets, (25-19, 25-16, 25-12) and controlled the match to notch consecutive win number 87 in Rec Hall.
Penn State struggled yet again with their serving, posting a team total of 12 services errors for the night. However, Arielle Wilson, Fatima Balza and Kristin Carpenter each dished out a service ace of their own.
The Nittany Lions also made a team total of four hitting errors, but that statistic was greatly overlooked by the superb offensive numbers they put up. Penn State hit .424 in the first set, .483 in the second and .500 in the third set. Three Penn State players had double-digit kills as well. Blair Brown led the team with 14 kills, as Arielle Wilson followed with 11 and Deja McClendon posted 10 of her own.
Overall, head coach Russ Rose and his players were disappointed that they played relatively sloppy volleyball, but they were satisfied with the win. Rose said that he was looking for a little more enthusiasm from his girls.
"I just didn't think we came out and played real hard and played well together," said Rose. "I thought our hitting was about the only thing that was good and then we had some blocks in the last game but it was a flat game and you know I would have expected a little bit more from a couple of people. I thought Blair played well, and Ari played well."
Senior Blair Brown agreed that she and her teammates seemed to lack the spark they had really needed on the court. She said that she was happy with the way the team played, but was expecting more effort and passion.
"I think it did lack energy," said Brown. "I think it was good that each game we got better, I think that's good improvement and that's always something that you want. But I think we just need to bring more energy tomorrow night. We need to pump the crowd up that comes to watch us play. You know they came here to see something and we need to give them something to see."
But the Nittany Lions stepped up their game on Saturday night, and everyone came out swinging. Penn State swept Big Ten rival Illinois and improved their record to 23-4 overall and 13-3 in conference play. The win moved the Nittany Lions into a share of first place of Big Ten standing with none other than the Illini.
Penn State faced Illinois on the road earlier this season and lost the match 3-2. With the help of a packed Rec Hall and a little extra determination, the Nittany Lions were able to reverse the outcome.
Penn State had three big hitters post double-digit kills as Blair Brown tallied 13, Deja McClendon had 12 and Ariel Scott notched ten of her own. As a team, the Nittany Lions averaged a hitting percentage of .324 over the three sets. Scott also came up big at the net as she put up five blocks, and Fatima Balza had five of her own as well.
The Nittany Lions held the Illini to just a .112 hitting percentage for the evening, winning each respective set 25-18, 25-16 and 25-18. Penn State played solid defense as Cathy Quilico posted a match-high ten digs and teammates Brown and McClendon followed with seven digs too.
Besides the big win and a Big Ten top spot, head coach Russ Rose said he was also much happier with the team's serving game. The Nittany Lions cut their number of service errors in half from the previous match against Wisconsin, and recorded four services aces as well.
"I was pretty happy with most everything we did," said Rose. "I thought we did a few things that were silly but we have that gene and I mean when you're playing with two or three freshmen on the floor you're going to have some challenges. If you can beat a team like Illinois you feel great about it."
Alyssa D'Errico agreed that the win was an important one, and puts the Nittany Lions right where they need to be at this point in the season.
"I think it's a good mark point for us to see where we started Big Ten play and kind of how far we've come from there," said D'Errico. "Obviously there's still some stuff that we need to work on to get better for postseason but I think right now we're in a good spot and we've put ourselves in a good situation to be able to achieve one of our goals in winning the Big Ten."
As for the 88 consecutive match wins at home, D'Errico said that the streak is merely a matter of numbers.
"We're not looking at the numbers we're looking at the next match," said D'Errico. "The streak is not going to matter if we don't win the next two games at home because then we're not going to hang another banner in the Big Ten. Our goal is always to hang more banners, decorate Rec Hall a little bit more, try and get some more accomplishments up there for people to see and draw more people in and make the program better and more special."
"It's a great accomplishment but I don't even know what the number is," said D'Errico. "I just know that we keep winning at home and we like playing here."