Nov. 23, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 2 Penn State (26-2, 17-1) clinched at least a share of its 16th Big Ten Championship in program history rallying past No. 20 Illinois (15-13, 11-7) in four sets (25-20, 25-17, 23-25, 25-16) Saturday evening on Senior Night at Rec Hall. The title marks the 10th conference title for the Nittany Lions in last 11 years. The Penn State victory also extends the current PSU winning streak to 17 consecutive matches.
Seniors Ariel Scott and Deja McClendon led the offense, combining for 18 kills apiece. McClendon logged her eighth double-double of the season with 18 digs, adding three blocks. Senior Katie Slay followed close behind with nine kills on .389 hitting, adding three blocks.
Sophomore Megan Courtney led the defense with 19 digs, tallying six kills and four total blocks, including two solo blocks. Junior Nia Grant posted a team-high five blocks to go along with seven kills and seven digs.
Penn State opened the contest with a comfortable lead, 8-4, until an Illini kill and a Nittany Lion error closed the gap to two, 8-6. PSU responded with a 4-0 spurt, capped off with kill from Deja McClendon, forcing Illinois to call a timeout.
Following the break, PSU constructed a 5-3 streak as Grant, Slay and Scott all chipped in kills to bolster the lead to five, 15-10. With Penn State maintaining the steady advantage, the Fighting Illini fought within two, 19-17, but McClendon followed with two consecutive kills to bring the lead back up to four, 21-17.
Scott came out of a brief timeout with two back-to-back kills to make it 23-17. Illinois looked to spark a comeback with a kill, followed by a PSU error, but Penn State tallied the next three straight points to secure a 25-20 victory.
The Nittany Lions jumped out to a 15-9 lead in the second set, paced by three kills from Courtney. Illinois attempted to end the streak with a kill, but Penn State continued to power on, using a 7-3 run to claim a 22-13 advantage. The Illini called a timeout to regroup and then battled within six, 23-17, helped out by two kills from Jocelynn Birks. Scott and Courtney answered with a pair of kills to lock up a 25-17 victory in the frame and 2-0 lead in the match.
Following the intermission, Illinois came out of the break on an 11-5 run to capture an early lead. Scott attempted to spark a run with kill, but the Illini responded with a 4-1 spurt to go up by as many as eight, 15-7. Using a 3-0 strike, the Nittany Lions managed to cut the advantage back to five, 15-10, but two costly errors set PSU behind by seven, 17-10.
Down by six, 20-14, Penn State managed to cut the lead in half with kills from Scott, McClendon and Courtney, 20-17. From there, the Nittany Lions pulled within one, 23-22, but couldn't pull out the win as Birks connected on two kills, in between one from Scott to hand Illinois a 25-23 decision in the third.
Leading by one, 4-3 in the fourth, Penn State put together a 7-2 streak to take control of an 11-5 lead. After trading service errors, the Illini used a 6-2 stretch to come within three, 14-11. Pulling away, the Nittany Lions delivered an 8-4 streak to rebuild the advantage to seven, 22-15, forcing Illinois to call a timeout.
Following the break Hancock and Slay pounded back-to-back kills to put Grant at the line for match-point. A service error thwarted the attempt, but the Illini answered with an attack error to seal a 25-16 win in the fourth set and victory in the match.
Next up, Penn State hits travels to Ohio State and Nebraska to conclude the 2013 regular season. The Nittany Lions visit Ohio State in a midweek match, set for Wednesday, Nov. 27th, before traveling to Nebraska for the season finale Saturday, Nov. 30th.