AUSTIN, Texas – No. 25 Penn State, the defending National Champion, opened the 2025 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament with a 3-1 (25-23, 12-25, 25-21, 25-19) win over South Florida on Friday night at Texas’s Gregory Gymnasium. The Nittany Lions moved to 19-12 overall with their seventh-straight postseason win dating back to last season, while the Bulls close the season at 17-13.
Penn State advances to the NCAA Second Round where it will play host Texas, the No. 3 overall seed, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET. The match will stream on ESPN+. The matchup features the teams responsible for each of the past three national titles with the Longhorns winning back-to-back in 2022 and 2023 and the Nittany Lions taking home the trophy in 2024.
Kennedy Martin, an AVCA National Player of the Year semifinalist and recent first-team All-Big Ten selection, paced Penn State’s attack as she hit .341 with 22 kills and added five blocks, four digs, and three aces. Emmi Sellman tallied nine kills, Maggie Mendelson hit .375 with eight kills, and Caroline Jurevicius contributed six kills. Addie Lyon finished with 41 assists and eight digs.
Gillian Grimes, also a first-team All-Big Ten honoree this past week, fueled Penn State’s defensive effort with 10 digs and had two of the team’s eight aces. Ava Falduto was right behind her with eight digs and chipped in with one ace.
Maria Clara Andrade totaled 16 kills, nine digs, and five blocks for South Florida. Arianna Beckham hit .533 with eight kills.
Penn State remained unbeaten at 27-0 in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament. The Nittany Lions improved to 4-0 in the all-time series with the Bulls.
Set 1
Martin hit .700 with seven kills, two blocks, and one ace as Penn State edged South Florida 25-23 in the first set. Emmi Sellman contributed four kills. The Nittany Lions trailed 15-10 before using a 4-0 run to get within one at 15-14. Mendelson started the run with a kill, while Grimes capped it with an ace. Following a point by South Florida, the Nittany Lions went on a 3-0 run to take a 17-16 lead. The run included a kill by Martin, a block by Lyon and Gabrielle Nichols, and an ace by Martin. The teams battled to a 20-20 tie before Penn State scored back-to-back points on a kill by Martin and a block by Martin and Mendelson. Sellman later added a pair of big kills, the first to put the Nittany Lions up 23-21 and the second to make it 24-22. South Florida scored the next point but followed it with an attack error to end the set.
Set 2
South Florida rolled to a 25-12 win in the second set behind seven kills on .462 hitting from Andrade. The blowout in the set helped skew the final stats as the Bulls held advantages in hitting percentage (.452-.091), kills (16-9), digs (17-9), aces (2-0), and blocks (2-0).
Set 3
Penn State bounced back strong with a 25-21 win in set three. Martin tallied six kills, while Sellman had three and Jurevicius tacked on two. The Nittany Lions broke a 20-20 tie with a 3-0 run thanks to two kills and an ace by Martin. South Florida scored the next point but then closed the set with a pair of attack errors.
Set 4
Penn State held South Florida to .069 hitting as it finished the match with a 25-19 win in set four. Martin led the way with six kills, while Mendelson totaled three kills on .400 hitting. South Florida jumped out to a huge 7-1 lead, but Penn State wasted no time in its comeback as it used a 4-0 run to knot the score at 10-all. Sellman had an ace and Jurevicius notched a kill during that stretch. The Nittany Lions later took their first lead of the set at 13-12 with a kill by Martin. They later found themselves down two at 15-13 but responded with a 5-0 run to go up 18-15. Martin had a kill, a solo block, and a block alongside Mendelson during the big run. The Bulls got within one at 18-17 but scored just two more points after that. Penn State came up big at the service line, getting an ace from Grimes to go up 22-17 and an ace by Sellman for match point.