No. 4 Women's Volleyball Drops Home Match to No. 6 PittNo. 4 Women's Volleyball Drops Home Match to No. 6 Pitt
Mark Selders

No. 4 Women's Volleyball Drops Home Match to No. 6 Pitt

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The fourth-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team suffered a rare sweep at home with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-23) loss to sixth-ranked Pittsburgh in a non-conference match Friday night at Rec Hall. The Lions dropped to 6-2 after playing their third consecutive match against a top-10 team, while the Panthers remained unbeaten at 11-0.

Chinaza Ndee did a lot of the damage for Pitt from the right side with 12 kills on .611 hitting and three blocks. Two other Panthers just missed double-doubles. Kayla Lund finished with 14 kills and eight digs, while Stephanie Williams recorded nine kills and 10 digs.

Serena Gray hit .438 with eight kills for the Nittany Lions. She leads the team with a .512 hitting percentage on the season, tallying 74 kills to just 10 errors on her 125 total attacks.

Kendall White registered 13 digs, while Gabby Blossom and Jenna Hampton had five apiece. Hampton had numerous hustle plays that either kept rallies alive or led to a Penn State point.Ā 



Penn State was swept against a non-conference opponent in a regular season home match for the first time since 1986, when the Lions fell 3-0 to UC-Santa Barbara. Friday's loss came to a Pittsburgh team that has won back-to-back ACC titles and that has won 17 consecutive regular season matches.

The Lions made a valiant effort with a comeback attempt in the third set that nearly allowed them to avoid the sweep. They fended off five match-point attempts by the Panthers to get within one, 24-23, but saw the run end on a kill by Lund.

Pittsburgh posted its first victory over Penn State since 1987, ending a streak of 16 consecutive losses in the series.Ā 

The two nationally-ranked teams will play again on Sunday when Penn State travels to Pittsburgh for a 1 p.m. match at the Petersen Events Center.
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