Sept. 28, 2015
By Anita Nham, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" Megan Courtney did every single thing that a captain is supposed to do during a match when the Nittany Lions faced off against Minnesota on Saturday.
In just the first set, Courtney ignited the team's confidence after she used her strong IQ to easily tap the ball over the net for a kill for the opening point.
Throughout the rest of the night, she continued to lead by example, sparking the team on offense and defense. Courtney also provided encouragement to her teammates during timeouts and in the game when Penn State was falling behind in the sets, while never losing focus on the final goal of winning.
Because of Courtney's leadership, the Nittany Lions were able to defeat No. 21 Minnesota in five sets (25-22, 25-16, 19-25, 20-25, 15-12) on Saturday evening in Rec Hall.
Courtney led the team with a season-best and match-high of 22 kills as well as 13 digs, which marked her fifth double-double of the season. This was her third career 20-plus kill match. Courtney also notched five total blocks for the night, including two solo stuffs.
"I thought it was well-played matched by the two seniors," said head coach Russ Rose. "I thought [Minnesota's] Santana and Megan were especially key for their teams with their confidence and their smart shots."
Alongside Courtney, three other Nittany Lions fueled Penn State's offense by recording double digits kills for the second consecutive match. Ali Frantti, Aiyana Whitney and Haleigh Washington all finished out the night with 13 kills each.
"It feels good to win," said junior Taylor Krause. "It's great to have good leadership on the court, like from [Courtney and Weiskircher.]"
Redshirt freshman Bryanna Weiskircher logged a career-high of 54 assists and 12 digs for her second double-double of the season. Weiskircher also led the team along with Washington with two aces.
"I thought Bryanna steadied out. I thought she was good early, got a little complacent in the middle games and provided good direction in the last game," said coach Rose.
It was a battle throughout the night between Penn State and Minnesota, but the Nittany Lions knew that there was going to be tough competition.
"I thought it was a great match," said coach Rose. "One that we had many times with other teams in the conference and we were fortunate to win it based on how we played in the middle of the third and fourth game…[Minnesota] beat tenth-ranked Ohio State a couple of nights ago. They're very strong and I would expect them to continue to do great things."
Penn State hopes to continue its winning streak as the women's volleyball team continues Big Ten conference matchups this weekend against Nebraska and Iowa, but Courtney realizes that there is still a long season ahead of them.
"The Big Ten is a great conference, and if you go undefeated in the Big Ten, that's an incredible accomplishment, but that doesn't mean much," said Courtney. "We lost two games in the Big Ten last year, and unfortunately, didn't win the conference, but we won the national championship, so my focus is winning in December rather than winning in September. It matters that we want to win at home, and we want to be able to win on the road, but a loss isn't going to make your season end, and we did a great job of that last year. Our goal is to win, but we learn from it, and we move forward."