UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 8 seed and seventh-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team put on a show on Friday evening in the NCAA First Round match versus Howard as the Nittany Lions swept the Bison, 3-0: 25-9, 25-9, 25-8 in Rec Hall.
Penn State sided out at an impressive 96-percent for the match, going a perfect 10-10 in the second set, and a perfect 8-8 in the third.
Eight different players registered kills for the Nittany Lions with freshman Jonni Parker leading the way with a match-high nine kills and a .444 hitting percentage. Redshirt senior Nia Reed added eight kills, hitting .389, while both freshman Kaitlyn Hord and graduate student Taylor Leath added seven. Hord hit .583 for the match, while Leath hit .467 and both were errorless in their attacking. The offensive production wrapped up with five kills for Tori Gorrell, two kills for both Bryanna Weiskircher and Allyson Cathey, and one for Amanda Phegley.
Redshirt senior Bryanna Weiskircher directed the offense to 41 kills and a .474 hitting percentage as she dished out 27 assists. She also added four digs and two blocks.
Penn State finished the three set match with 9.0 team blocks, with Parker and Hord each tallying five a piece.
Defensively Kendall White scooped up 14 digs, giving her a career totoal of 517, breaking the previous single season high of 507 set by Alyssa D'Errico in 2010 (25-point rally scoring era record). White also added two aces. Leath added 10 digs on the evening.
The Nittany Lions improve to 24-7 on the season, and gave the program and Head Coach Russ Rose 99 career NCAA Tournament victories.
Penn State will take on Syracuse, who defeated Yale, 3-0, at 7 p.m. on Saturday evening on the Big Ten Network in Rec Hall.