Nov. 7, 2017
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No.1-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team heads to Iowa for a 9 p.m. ET match on Wednesday evening at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The match will be on the Big Ten Network.
SCOUTING THE IOWA
The Hawkeyes are 16-11 and 5-9 on the season. They went 1-1 last weekend, opening with a 3-0 win over Indiana, and then almost pulled the upset over No. 22 Purdue, but the Boilermakers squeaked out the 3-2 in Iowa City. Taylor Louis leads the Hawkeyes with 3.46 kills per set from the pin. Freshman Gabrielle Orr is directing the offense to a tune of 10.81 assists per set and a .250 offensive clip. Jess Janota is leading the team out of the middle with 2.40 kills per set on a .307 hitting percentage while adding 0.93 blocks per set.
FIRST SERVE
>> Kendall White picked up her 3rd Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honor for averaging 4.89 digs per set in wins over #9 Michigan State and Rutgers.
>> White is now just the third Nittany Lions to be honored as the Defensive Player of the Week three times in a single season by the Big Ten league office. She joins Katie Slay and Kaleena Walters, who each recorded seasons with three or more honors. Slay, who finished with eight career honors, earned three in the 2012 season, and Walters earned all four of her career honors during the 2005 season.
>>Haleigh Washington became the 7th athlete in Penn State volleyball lore to reach 1,000 kills and 500 blocks on Oct. 25. She was the first in seven seasons to reach 500 blocks, as the last to achieve this feat was Arielle Wilson (2007-10). Washington is also currently the only active Big Ten player to reach this mark.
>> Haleigh Washington was named the FloVolleyball Big Ten Player of the Month on Friday morning for her sustained performance over the month of October. Since October 1, she has helped lead the Nittany Lions to victories over top-20-ranked Michigan State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. She also surpassed 1,000 career kills and 500 career blocks last month. Absolutely deadly on the slide, the 6-foot-3 First Team All-American has a .519 hitting percentage, the best average in the country. Her career hitting percentage ranks third all-time in NCAA Division I history. Against Ohio State on October 6, Washington set a new career high with 20 kills. That night, she also added eight blocks. In the month of October, Washington was named the Big Ten Player of the Week three times.
>> Penn State has three active 1,000 kill club members as Ali Frantti was the first on Aug. 26 at West Virginia, and Simone Lee followed on Oct. 6 at Ohio State, and Haleigh Washington eclipsed the mark on Oct. 21 at Indiana.
>> The last time Penn State had three active 1,000 kill club members was in 2008. Entering the season, Megan Hodge and Nicole Fawcett were already past the mark, but on Sept. 5, 2008, Christa Harmotto joined the club as well.
>> The marks the 70th week the Nittany Lions have been at No. 1 in the poll since the end of the 2006 season, and the 94th time in the history of the poll. The Nittany Lions' first No. 1 Ranking came on Sept. 2, 1997, and the poll was started in 1982.
>> Penn State also remained No. 1 in the RPI that was released on Monday, Nov. 6.
>>Twice this season, the Nittany Lions have had four players with double-digit kills. Against Stanford (9/1): Abby Detering (11k), Ali Frantti (10k), Haleigh Washington (10k), and Simone Lee (11k), and against Purdue (10/20): Ali Frantti (15k), Heidi Thelen (14k), Simone Lee (13k), and Haleigh Washington (10k).
TIME CHANGE
The Penn State at Minnesota match on Nov. 25 has been picked up by the Big Ten Network, and the match time has been moved to 8:30 p.m. ET. This will be the first meeting between the two squads, both of whom are currently in the top three in the Big Ten Standings.
UP NEXT
The Nittany Lions return home on Saturday, Nov. 11 for their Homecoming Weekend match versus Maryland at 7 p.m. in Rec Hall.