Sept. 13, 2014
Final Stats (PDF) I Final Stats
VILLANOVA, Pa. - No. 3 Penn State women's volleyball (8-1) captured the Villanova Classic crown with a straight-set (25-10, 27-25, 25-23) victory against No. 24 Kansas (9-2) Saturday evening at the Pavilion.
Senior Micha Hancock earned Villanova Classic MVP honors while senior Nia Grant and redshirt junior Aiyana Whitney joined her on the All-Tournament Team.
Grant and Whitney both powered the Penn State offense with double-digit kills in the win. Whitney tallied 13 on .571 hitting, while also leading the team with six blocks. Grant recorded 10 kills on .467 hitting, adding two digs and two blocks.
Junior Megan Courtney finished second on the team with five blocks and seven digs, while also posting four kills. Senior Dominique Gonzalez anchored the defense with 12 digs.
Hancock registered another standout performance from the endline, tallying six aces to go along with four kills and two blocks.
Penn State and Kansas kept it close early in the first set, 3-3, until Grant and Hancock teamed up for back-to-back blocks to give the Nittany Lions a two-point edge, 5-3. Kansas responded with a kill to remain close behind, 5-4, but Penn State answered with six unanswered points to bolster the lead to seven, 11-4.
The Jayhawks looked to get back on track with a kill, 11-5, but the Nittany Lions followed with a 9-1 scoring streak featuring two kills from Whitney and a pair of aces from Hancock to move ahead by as many as 14. Looking to regroup, Kansas connected on a kill and a block in between a service error to climb within 13. Whitney and Grant sparked a 4-2 stretch with back-to-back kills that powered PSU to a 25-10 win in the opening frame.
Trailing by one, 5-4, in set two, Penn State used a 7-1 run to construct a five-point lead, 11-6, forcing the Jayhawks to call a timeout. The Nittany Lions came out of the break firing as Grant and Hancock opened up a 5-2 streak with a big block to lift PSU ahead by eight, 16-8. Kansas cut off the momentum with a kill, 16-9, but the Penn State went point-for-point with the Jayhawks to remain on top, 20-13.
Unable to sustain the momentum, the Jayhawks capitalized on a PSU attack error, 20-14, rallying with an 8-1 streak to knot the frame, 21-21. A Kansas service error kept PSU in the lead, 22-21, but the Jayhawks fired another kill to re-tie the score, 22-22.
The two teams traded kills twice more before Courtney made it set point a kill at 25-24. A PSU service error held off the attempt, but the Jayhawks followed with service error of their own to give the Nittany Lions the edge, 26-25. Grant quickly finished off a 27-25 win in the second set with a kill to send Penn State into the intermission with a 2-0 lead.
Penn State charged out to a 5-1 start in set three, capped off by three consecutive aces from Hancock. PSU and Kansas continued to battle point-for-point, but the Nittany Lions managed to maintain a four-point lead, 8-4. Rallying, the Jayhawks constructed a 5-0 run to take over a one-point lead, 9-8. Grant halted the attack with a kill, 9-9, but the both squads continued to trade points.
With the frame tied at 11-all, Courtney and Whitney pounded back-to-back kills to lift the Nittany Lions ahead, 13-11, but a service error put the Jayhawks back within one, 13-12. Unable to continue the momentum, Kansas remained close behind the Nittany Lions for much of the frame.
Looking to make a late run, 21-19, the Jayhawks used a 4-1 strike to take over a one-point lead, 23-22, forcing Penn State to call a timeout. Penn State came out of the break with a kill from Frantti and a block by Courtney and Whitney to make it set point, 24-23. Whitney followed with another kill to secure a 25-23 win in the third set to complete the sweep.
Next up, Penn State returns home from the road to round out the non-conference portion of the 2014 slate with the Penn State Alumni Classic. In conjunction with the Penn State 50 Years of Women in Sport Celebration, PSU welcomes four former Nittany Lions back to the court in Rec Hall for the Penn State Alumni Classic, Sept. 19-20.
The four former Nittany Lions returning to the court as head coaches of participating teams include: Eastern Illinois (Kate Price '08), DePaul (Nadia Edwards '01), University of Illinois-Chicago (Katie Schumacher-Cawley '02) and East Carolina (Julie Torbett '90). PSU takes on EIU and DePaul in a doubleheader Friday, Sept. 19 before concluding the event with a matchup against ECU Saturday, Sept. 20.