Oct. 5, 2015
By Anita Nham, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" Although top-ranked Penn State fell just short in a five-set thriller against No. 4 Nebraska on Friday evening, the Blue and White bounced back to defeat Iowa in three straight sets in the eighth annual 'Dig Pink' match on Saturday in Rec Hall.
"Iowa is very competitive, and they do the things they do very well and they play with great energy," said head coach Russ Rose. "…As I told the players earlier [on Saturday], losing or your statistics don't really define you. They're just an indication of how you played. How you bounce back from defeat or challenges is how people will define you and how you can define yourself."
The crowd of 5,331 attendees provided a sea of pink throughout Rec Hall on Saturday evening. Rec Hall was filled with pink shirts and shakers, and the wRECking Crew and Pep Band all wore pink construction hats. Every member of the team dressed in pink warmup T-shirts and added light-pink bows to their hair to support the Side-Out Foundation and to raise awareness for breast cancer.
"I think it's really special [to have the 'Dig Pink' match]," said senior Kendall Pierce. "Playing as women, it's really important for us. It's the big picture of 'What are we playing for? What are we representing?'. Even if it's wearing a ribbon in our hair for one night, it means a lot."
In addition to hosting the 'Dig Pink' match on Saturday evening, senior Megan Courtney reached the 1,000 career kills milestone. She notched 12 kills for the night to record 1,004 career kills. Courtney also had 13 digs to make her just four digs shy of the 1,000 career digs record.
"Megan has had a great career to date," said coach Rose. "She's been a real fixture and support of our program and progress. She's a good leader and I'm proud of her performance that she has and how she conducts herself."
Redshirt freshman Bryanna Weiskircher was another key player on Saturday evening. She led the team with 34 assists, a season-high of three aces and 10 digs.
"Coach has always been on me [about my serves]," said Weiskircher. "I have one of the toughest serves, so I know that I have to go back there and just let it rip sometimes, and have my team help me and defend my serve. Sometimes, I come up with aces, and sometimes, I don't, but I think it just got the team rolling a little bit, so it was nice."
Coming off their first loss of the season on Friday evening, the Nittany Lions knew that they had to rebound the following night.
"You're up 2-0 against the No. 4 team in the country, you've got to feel pretty confident, but [Nebraska] came out in the third game and outplayed us. Period," said Courtney. "We can't let that happen. It's the same thing that happened against Minnesota. We got outplayed, outhustled and outworked, and that's not what happens at Penn State, so that's on [me and Aiyana] as seniors and as captains to not let a team, no less at home, be able to come in here and beat us at our house, especially in front of a crowd that was incredible [on Friday evening]."
It's a long and competitive season in not only the Big Ten conference, but also nationally. There are times when teams fall, but it's about how they rise up, and Penn State showed that this weekend. Overall, it was a phenomenal weekend for women's volleyball and in raising awareness for breast cancer.
"It was a great weekend," said coach Rose. "I've been here for a long time and to have over 10,000 people to come in on back-to-back nights to watch a women's volleyball team, it's great. I think the promotions people have really done a great job, and the booster club and the student wRECking Crew, they've all really made a big difference. I'm just really proud to be a part of it."