Sept. 6, 2014
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| Maples Pavilion | Palo Alto, Calif. | |
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PALO ALTO, Calif. - In a clash between the two top-ranked women's volleyball teams in the country, No. 1 Penn State (3-1) came up just short in close 3-2 (25-18, 23-25, 22-25, 25-16, 10-15) loss at No. 2 Stanford (3-0) Friday evening in Maples Pavilion.
Freshman Ali Frantti led the Nittany Lion offense with a career-high performance, posting her first collegiate double-double with 22 kills on .405 hitting, adding 11 digs and two blocks. Senior Micha Hancock also recorded her first double-double of the season, dishing out 57 assists to go along with 13 digs and four kills.
Junior Megan Courtney finished second on the team with 18 kills, adding nine digs and a squad-best five blocks. Freshman Simone Lee rounded out the group of double-digit hitters, tallying 11 kills.
Senior Nia Grant posted nine kills on .316 hitting, totaling five digs and two blocks, while redshirt junior Aiyana Whitney added seven kills and four blocks.
Senior Dominique Gonzalez anchored the defense with 20 digs, marking her fourth career match with 20 or more digs. Senior Lacey Fuller also registered double-digit digs, with a season-high mark of 10.
Penn State opened the match with a 3-1 spurt for an early lead, behind two kills from Frantti. A service error slowed the momentum, but Courtney sparked another 3-1 strike capped off by two kills from Lee to keep the Nittany Lions on top, 6-3. Another service error stopped the streak, but PSU responded with an 8-3 run to double the advantage, 14-7.
Regrouping, the Cardinal climbed within two, 17-15, helped out by an 8-3 stretch. Penn State answered with a quick 3-0 strike to build the lead back up to five, 20-15. Stanford looked to spark some momentum with a kill, 20-16, but the Nittany Lions closed out the set on a 5-2 streak to lock up a 25-18 win in the first set.
Penn State and Stanford kept it close early in the second set, until the Cardinal used a 6-2 stretch to take over a three-point lead, 9-6. PSU responded with consecutive kills from Frantti and Hancock to knot the frame, 9-9. PSU and Stanford knotted the frame two more times before the Cardinal used a 4-0 run to break away from a 12-all tie, moving ahead, 16-12.
The Nittany Lions regrouped with a block by Grant and Courtney, but the Cardinal quickly tallied two more quick points to move ahead by five, 18-13. Rebounding, Grant, Hancock and Frantti pounded a trio of consecutive kills to lift Penn State within two, 18-16.
Stanford followed with a kill to cut off the streak, but a Cardinal error and a block from Frantti moved the Nittany Lions within one, 19-18, forcing Stanford to call a timeout. Both teams traded kills out of the break, before a PSU service error and a Stanford kill put the Card up, 22-19, causing the Nittany Lions to take a timeout.
Penn State came out of the break firing, following a Stanford service error with an ace from freshman Lainy Pierce and a kill from Lee to tie it up, 22-22. The Cardinal answered with a kill and block to make it set point, 24-22, but Courtney pounded a kill to hold off the attempt. Stanford followed with another kill to take a 25-23 win in the second set to tie the match, 1-1.
With the frame tied up at 3-all after the intermission, Penn State opened up on a 5-1 run to take control of an 8-4 lead in the third set. The Cardinal cut off the streak with a kill, but Penn State put down three kills and a block to bolster the advantage to six, 11-5. The Cardinal answered back with a 5-1 stretch to narrow the gap to two, 12-10.
Penn State and Stanford continued to battle point-for-point until a Nittany Lions attack error tied the frame, 16-16. A Cardinal service error and a kill from Grant pushed PSU ahead, 18-16, but Stanford answered with consecutive blocks to keep the frame knotted, 18-18.
Keeping it tight down the stretch, Penn State and Stanford tied it up four more times before a Stanford kill gave the Cardinal a crucial one-point lead, 23-22, causing the Nittany Lions to call a timeout. Stanford came out of the timeout with a kill following a PSU attack error, securing set three 25-22 for a 2-1 lead in the match.
PSU charged out to a 6-2 lead early in set four, capped off by three consecutive kills from Whitney, Courtney and Lee. Holding off pressure from the Cardinal, the Nittany Lions managed to maintain a four-point advantage, 9-5. A service error put Stanford within three, 9-6, but a 5-2 run kept Penn State in control of a comfortable advantage, 14-8.
A pair of errors interrupted the momentum, putting Stanford within four, 14-10, but PSU followed with a 6-2 strike to construct an eight-point lead, 20-12. The Cardinal made one final attempt to mount a comeback in the frame with a kill, 20-13, but PSU finished off the set on a 5-3 stretch to take set four, 25-16, to even the match, 2-2.
Penn State and Stanford kept it close early in the fifth frame, until two attack errors lifted the Cardinal ahead by two, 8-6 at the crossover. Lee came out of the break with a kill, but a Penn State attack error and a Stanford kill moved the Cardinal ahead by three, 10-7, forcing Penn State to call a timeout.
Courtney came out of the break with a kill, 10-8, but the Cardinal responded with three consecutive points to make it 13-8. Frantti looked to spark a run with a kill, 13-9, but a service error make it match point, 1-9. Courtney held off the attempt with a kill, 14-10, but Stanford put down the final kill to win the deciding frame, 15-10.
Next up, Penn State closes out the weekend with its final matchup of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge. The Nittany Lions square off against UCLA Saturday, Sept. 6 at 8 p.m. ET.