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Dec. 5, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Seventh-seeded Penn State women's volleyball (28-5) downed Dayton (27-6) in four sets (25-17, 13-25, 25-14, 25-17) Saturday evening at Rec Hall to advance to the NCAA regional semifinals.
The Nittany Lions snapped Dayton's national-best 25 match winning streak, while also earning their 13th consecutive trip to the NCAA regionals. PSU's streak of appearances in the round of 16 is the longest active DI stretch.
Penn State will take on Hawaii in the Des Moines regional semifinals Friday, Dec. 11 in Wells Fargo Arena.
"We feel fortunate to advance and to know it's never a given," head coach Russ Rose said. "It's always hard and every match has its challenges and this one is no different. I am thrilled with our effort tonight and how we competed especially after we played as poorly as we did in the second game."
Redshirt senior Aiyana Whitney and sophomore Ali Frantti led the team for the second consecutive outing with 14 kills each. Frantti hit .407 with seven digs while Washington hit .448 with three total blocks, including two solo stuffs.
Sophomores Haleigh Washington and Heidi Thelen logged seven kills each. Thelen posted an .875 hitting efficiency while Whitney finished tied for first on the team with four total blocks.
Senior Megan Courtney led the defensive effort with 15 digs, while senior libero Kendall Pierce finished second on the team with a career-high 13 digs.
Redshirt freshman Bryanna Weiskircher paced the team to a .369 hitting clip, passing out 46 assists to go along with seven digs and four total blocks.
Penn State and Dayton kept it close early in the opening set. With Penn State leading by one, 6-5, Washington and Frantti sparked a 4-0 run with back-to-back kills to send PSU ahead by five, 10-5. The Flyers called a timeout, but a Dayton attack error out of the break extended the Nittany Lion lead, 11-5. The Flyers looked to get back on track with a kill following a PSU service error, 11-7. Penn State answered back with a 3-1 spurt to pull ahead by six, 14-8.
Dayton responded with three consecutive kills to cut the gap to three, 14-11. Back-to-back kills from Courtney and Weiskircher sparked a 9-5 stretch that extended the Nittany Lion advantage to seven, 23-16. The Flyers made one final attempt to mount a comeback with a kill, 23-17, but a kill from Frantti and a UD attack error secured a 25-17 win in the first set.
Dayton shot out to an 8-3 lead in the second set causing Penn State to call an early timeout. The Flyers continued the momentum out of the break with three more points to move ahead 11-3. Whitney looked to cut off the run with a kill, but the Flyers answered a kill to remain ahead, 12-4.
Penn State continued to chip away at the Dayton advantage, using a 6-4 stretch to shave the deficit to five, 16-11. The Nittany Lions could not sustain the momentum as the Flyers responded with a 9-2 run to take set two, 25-13 to even the match, 1-1.
The Nittany Lions opened the third set with an 8-4 run to take over a four-point advantage. The Flyers looked to cut off the momentum with a pair of kills in between one from Frantti, 9-6. Whitney quickly sparked a 4-2 stretch that made it 13-8. The Flyers looked to get back on track with a kill, 13-9, but Washington and Courtney opened up an 8-3 scoring streak that sent Penn State ahead 21-12, causing Dayton to call a timeout.
Penn State continued to roll out of the break, using a 4-2 strike capped off by kills from Whitney and Thelen to secure a 25-14 win in the third set to move ahead 2-1 in the match.
The Nittany Lions and the Flyers traded points throughout the first half of the fourth set to keep the score close. With the score tied up, 14-14, back-to-back kills from Washington lifted the Nittany Lions ahead, 16-14. Dayton put down a kill to arrive within one, 16-15, but PSU regrouped with four straight points, finished off by a kill and a solo stuff from Whitney to make it 20-15.
Dayton called a timeout, but a kill from Frantti and a Flyer attack error made it 22-15. UD made one final attempt to mount a comeback with a pair of kills, 22-17. Frantti and Whitney quickly followed with a pair of kills to make it match point, 24-17. A Dayton attack error gave the Nittany Lions the final point to secure a 25-17 win in the fourth set and 3-1 win in the match.
POSTMATCH NOTES: Penn State improves to 21-5 all-time in NCAA second round matches, while also moving to 92-27 all-time in NCAA tournament matches ... Penn State out-blocked its opponent for the 29th time this season, owning a 9.0-5.0 advantage in the margin against the Flyers ... Penn State moves to 2-0 all-time against the Flyers, having knocked Dayton out of the NCAA Tournament for the last two consecutive seasons.