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Oct. 16, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Career-high performances led No. 5 Penn State women's volleyball (16-2, 5-2) past Indiana (12-7, 2-5) in straight sets (25-18, 25-15, 25-14) Friday evening at home in Rec Hall.
Sophomore Simone Lee led the offense for the second consecutive outing, totaling 10 kills on a career-high .474 hitting efficiency. Redshirt senior Aiyana Whitney and redshirt freshman Nia Reed finished tied for second on the team with six kills each. In addition to a career-high kills tally, Reed also notched her first career multi-block performance with a pair of blocks.
Sophomores Ali Frantti and Haleigh Washington finished tied for third on the team with five kills apiece.
Freshman libero Keeton Holcomb led the defense with 15 digs, while senior Lara Caraway logged a career-high eight digs in her first collegiate start for the Nittany Lions. Redshirt freshman Bryanna Weiskircher posted nine digs, while senior Kendall Pierce chipped in eight.
Penn State led the Hoosiers in the blocking margin, 12.0-3.0, helped out by multi-block performances from five Nittany Lions. Whitney led the way with a career-high eight blocks, while Weiskircher finished second with a career-high six blocks.
Weiskircher also directed the Penn State offense to a .243 hitting clip, dishing out 27 assists.
Penn State jumped out to a 5-0 advantage for an early lead in the match. The Hoosiers called timeout and came out of the break with back-to-back kills to trim the gap to three, 5-2. Penn State followed with a 3-0 strike helped out by a kill from Reed and a pair of IU errors to make it 9-3.
The Hoosiers came storming back, using a 6-1 run to arrive within one, 10-9. The Nittany Lions regrouped with an 8-2 scoring stretch, featuring a pair of kills and a block from Lee to send Penn State ahead by as many as seven, 18-11. Indiana called another timeout and came out of the huddle with a kill and a block, but a service error kept Penn State on top, 19-13.
Indiana looked to spark a run with a kill, 19-14, but PSU answered with a 5-3 stretch capped off by kills from Weiskircher and Lee to arrive at set point, 24-17. A Nittany Lion attack error held off the attempt, before a kill from Lee closed out a 25-18 win in the first set.
Trailing by one early in the second set, 4-3, two kills from Washington and one from Frantti lifted the Nittany Lions ahead, 6-4. IU looked to break up the momentum with a kill, 6-5, but an Indiana service error and a block and a kill from Washington kept Penn State on top, 9-5. A Hoosier block kept Indiana close, 9-6, but two PSU blocks and a kill opened up a 10-5 run that bolstered the Nittany Lion advantage to as many as eight, 19-11.
The Hoosiers called a timeout, but an ace from Pierce out of the break sent Penn State ahead, 20-11. An Indiana kill and a PSU attack error trimmed the margin, 20-13, but Whitney sparked a 4-2 strike with a kill to carry the Nittany Lions to set point, 24-15. An Indiana service error handed the Nittany Lions a 25-15 win in the second set for a 2-0 lead in the match at the intermission.
Penn State came out of the break firing, using a 12-7 lead to construct an early advantage. The Hoosiers looked to break up the rhythm with a timeout, but Lee sparked a 5-1 run with three consecutive kills to send Penn State surging ahead, 17-8. Indiana looked to get back on track with a kill, 17-9, but a kill from Whitney and a block from Whitney and sophomore Heidi Thelen stretched the Nittany Lion advantage to double digits, 19-9.
Indiana looked to break up the streak with a kill, 19-10, but kills from Whitney, Thelen and Weiskircher in between one IU kill made it 22-11. The Hoosiers made one final attempt to mount a comeback with a 2-1 strike, 23-13, but a kill from Whitney and a block from Whitney and Weiskircher finished off a 25-14 win in the third set to complete the sweep.
Penn State returns to action tomorrow evening, taking on No. 18 Purdue. First serve between the Nittany Lions and the Boilermakers is set for 7 p.m. in Rec Hall.