Nov. 9, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Eight members of the No. 2 Penn State women's volleyball team (22-2, 13-1) recorded at least one kill in a straight-set victory (25-16, 25-11, 25-11) against Indiana (10-16, 1-13) Saturday evening at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lion victory extends the current PSU winning streak to 13 consecutive matches.
Senior Deja McClendon led the group with nine kills on .643 hitting, adding two digs and two blocks. Slay followed close behind with six kills on 14 errorless swings, while leading the team with five blocks. Redshirt freshman Paulina Prieto Cerame matched a career-high mark, tallying three solo blocks, while also registering four kills.
Junior Micha Hancock paced the PSU offense to a .427 hitting percentage, distributing 26 assists and totaling three aces, a squad-best eight digs and three blocks. Hancock has now guided the Nittany Lion offense to .300 or better hitting in the last three consecutive matches.
With the score knotted early in the opening frame, 4-4, Slay helped Penn State crack open the tie with a kill and a block. From there, Penn State remained in control of the narrow advantage, before using a 5-0 spurt,8-6,featuring two kills from Courtney, to move ahead by seven, 13-6. Rallying, Indiana delivered a 4-2 run, capitalizing on two PSU attack errors to arrive within five, 15-10. The Nittany Lions answered back with a 4-1 spurt, capped off by an ace by Hancock to rebuild the advantage to eight, 19-11, forcing the Hoosiers to call a timeout.
Following the break, Penn State did not allow Indiana to get any closer than seven, as McClendon rounded out a set-point attempt, 24-16, with a solo block to secure a 25-16 win in set one.
The Nittany Lions stormed out to an 11-2 advantage in set two, led by three kills from McClendon. IU attempted to slow the momentum with a kill, but Penn State powered on, taking a double-digit lead, 13-3, after two Indiana attacking errors. Without letting the advantage dip below nine for the remainder of the set, Penn State drew its largest lead of the stanza, 24-11, following back-to-back kills from Prieto Cerame to make it set-point. Prieto Cerame then followed with a solo stuff to give the Nittany Lions a 25-11 win in the second set and a 2-0 lead in the match.
Leading by one in the third set, 5-4, Penn State used a 4-0 strike to construct a five-point cushion, 9-4. Tallying a kill, the Hoosiers looked to settle into an offensive rhythm, but Penn State answered with a 6-1 stretch to vault the Nittany Lions ahead by nine, 15-6. Indiana made one more attempt to slow the momentum with a kill, 15-7, but PSU closed out the frame on a 10-4 run to seal a 25-11 win in set three.
Penn State hits the road next weekend, traveling to Wisconsin and Minnesota for a pair of important conference road tests. The Nittany Lions square off against the Badgers Friday, Nov. 15th before taking on the Golden Gophers Saturday, Nov. 16th.