A. Scott Leads with 23 Kills (Deja Totals 16)
In an interview prior to Penn State’s match with Nebraska last night in Rec Hall, Penn State Head Coach Russ Rose pointed to Nebraska’s #3 ranking in this week’s polls as motivation for his team:
That should be enough motivation for the players to get themselves together and be ready to go. If the players get themselves together, and do what they’re supposed to do, then maybe we have a shot.
At the end of the evening, Penn State had more than a shot — they had fought back from a one-set deficit to grab a 3-1 win over the Cornhuskers (23-25, 28-26, 25-17, 26-24).
It wasn’t a perfect match for the Nittany Lions (do those exist outside of Fandomania?) — the ratio of service errors-to-service aces was still over 2 to 1, for example — but Penn State showed real fight at a number of critical junctures, most notably when they were down 9-1 in the fourth set, then proceeded to run off eight straight points, then take the lead and hold off the Huskers for a 26-24 win.
Rose praised 6-4 Jr. Opp Ariel Scott, whose 23 kills (.360 attack %) topped the match, telling Aaron Dunleavy of The Daily Collegian that “A. Scott did a good job with the incredibly large number of swings that she had.” 6-1 Jr. OH Deja McClendon totaled 16 and 6-6 Jr. MH Katie Slay 10 (A .600 attack %). 5-11 So. S Micha Hancock struggled again at the service line, with one service ace and four service errors, but she chipped in six kills (.400 attack %), 55 assists, 11 digs and two blocks. 5-6 So. L Dominique Gonzalez’s 16 digs led the team, followed by McClendon’s 13. 6-2 So. MH Nia Grant and McClendon each totaled five blocks.
6-2 Jr. OH Maddie Martin, who had a nice match with five kills (.400 attack 5) and four digs, closed out the match with a service ace to seal Penn State’s 26-24 win in the fourth set.
Quote of the Day
The quote of the day is from a post-match interview of Russ Rose by Gordon Brunskill of the Centre Daily Times:
“You get a couple of heavyweights, sometimes it looks like a pillow fight and sometimes it looks like a brawl.”
Match Stats
(Courtesy of GoPSUsports.com)
