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Sept. 4, 2016
BOULDER, Colo. - No. 13 Penn State women's volleyball (2-3) fell short in three sets (24-26, 18-25-22-25) to No. 9 Stanford (2-1) Sunday evening in the final match of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge at the Coors Events Center.
Junior Simone Lee paced the Nittany Lions with 12 kills while junior Haleigh Washington added nine. Freshman Kendall White led the way with a career-high 22 digs for her first career 20-dig performance. Junior Abby Detering
Redshirt freshman Tori Gorrell posted six kills, while also leading the blocking unit with eight total blocks. Junior Heidi Thelen finished second on the squad with four blocks.
Junior Abby Detering dished out a career-high 35 assists, adding a personal best four kills to go along with nine digs.
Momentum began to shift in the opening set about midway through as a back-and-forth pace turned in favor of the Nittany Lions with Detering coming up with a big swing and redshirt freshman Tori Gorrell a big block for an 11-11 tie.
After Stanford rebounded for a pair of consecutive points it was the Lee sparking a four-point rally which included another Gorrell block and a 15-13 PSU advantage. The Cardinal fought back after a media timeout and used back-to-back service aces from Hayley Hodson to pull ahead 20-18.
Lee responded with a huge kill and both Detering and Gorrell skied for a block to knot the score again at 20-20. The teams continued to trade points before Penn State went on a mini three-point spurt to reach set point at 24-22. Stanford battled back, however, rattling off four straight points for the set victory, 26-24.
The first set saw 16 ties and five lead changes while Penn State hit .325 and Stanford just .237 with seven errors to the Nittany Lions' two.
The second set started with a fury of Lion points to grab a 3-1 lead before Stanford got back ahead at 5-4. PSU then ran off four straight points with a pair of kills by Frantti and one each by Washington and junior Heidi Thelen for the 8-5 edge.
The Cardinal again came back with another 3-0 run to pull even again, 8-8, before Penn State secured six of the next eight points to jump to a 14-10 lead, their largest of the match. Detering had a pair of huge kills while Lee had a big block and kill during the run.
Stanford again fought back into things going on a 7-0 run which included a pair of service aces to take the 17-14 lead. The Cardinal continued the pace as they scored 15 of the final 19 points to cruise to the 25-18 set victory.
PSU came out of the break to start the third set with some intensity using a Detering kill to grab a 3-1 lead and a few points late Detering combined with Washington for a block and the 5-3 lead. The Cardinal regained control for a brief portion maintaining a multiple point lead before a service error and a big block by Thelen knotted everything up at 18-18.
The Nittany Lions then took a two-point edge, 21-19, after kills by Washington and Frantti, but again the Cardinal came back to tie at 21-21 after a net violation. Out of a timeout the teams then traded points before Stanford collected the final three-straight for the 25-22 set victory.
Penn State held the slim 43-41 lead in kills and the 10-8 margin in blocks, but Stanford used eight service aces and only two service errors to their advantage while hitting .232 to PSU's .227.
The Nittany Lions return to action next weekend as they head to Syracuse, N.Y. for the Syracuse Classic where they battle Siena on Friday before taking on Hofstra and the Orange on Saturday.