Oct. 3, 2003
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 11 Penn State (14-1, 3-0 Big Ten) came out the victor when they played host to the Boilermaker volleyball team Friday night. Despite Purdue's best efforts, the Nittany Lions claimed the match 30-20, 30-20, 30-25.
Penn State scored the first point of game one but that didn't intimidate the Boilermakers who answered with a Kim Cappa kill and owned a 3-2 lead moments later after back-to-back kills by McConaha. Purdue didn't allow the Nittany Lions to take the lead until 9-8 as the next several serves brought 12 ties leading up to a knot up at 14. After Purdue tied it up at 14, Penn State went on a 6-0 run to make it 20-14 forcing a Boilermaker timeout. Purdue answered with a pair of points on kills by Melanie Ukovich and Cappa. Four Boilermaker miscues helped the Nittany Lions to a nine-point advantage at 27-18. A PSU error stopped the run, but another pair of miscues set up game-point for the Nittany Lions at 29-19. A Leah Wischmeier kill extended the game, but a kill by the conference's hitting leader and West Lafayette native Cara Smith closed the door at 30-20. Penn State committed just one error in the game hitting .576.
Game two saw the string of errors continue for both teams as a 3-1 PSU advantage turned into a 4-4 tie with help from a Nittany Lion hitting error and a net violation. The momentum changed from that point on as Penn State went up 18-10 and led by as many as nine at 23-14. Purdue hung in there cutting the lead to five at 23-18 with help from a four-point run including a kill by freshman Katie Dobson and a block by Dobson and Wischmeier. Penn State then took over outscoring the Boilermakers 7-2 over the final minutes to win by a matching 30-20 score.
Purdue started game three with a kill by Ukovich to give them a 1-0 lead. The lead was short lived however, as Penn State went up 6-2. The Boilermakers answered with three straight points, including an Andrea Kolwitz service ace to pull within one at 6-5. The point margin swelled to eight at 17-9. The lead hovered around six the rest of the night, although Purdue cut it to four at 26-22 to force a Penn State timeout. The teams traded points but the night ended up in the Nittany Lions' favor as Smith put down a kill to seal the game at 30-25 on PSU's second game-point attempt.
"They are obviously a good team and not used to losing to many matches here," "They are a fine team but after the end of the second game we had 25 hitting errors and they had four. That was the difference in the match. We want to come in here and get better, we didn't do that tonight, but hopefully we will learn from that and learn what it is like to play a Big Ten match on the road. I was pleased with the way we picked our game in game three. We aren't pleased with the way we played, but we know tomorrow night is another opportunity for us to learn from this and try to get better."
Wischmeier, the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week, tallied a match-high 14 kills, while McConaha was second among all hitters with 13. McConaha completed the double-double with a match-high tying 10 digs. A major factor in the match, however, was Penn State's blocking effort, out-doing the Boilermakers 11-2.
Purdue (9-4, 2-1 Big Ten) will now regroup and travel to Ohio State for a Saturday evening matchup with the Buckeyes.