No. 1 Penn State rallies from behind in win over Maryland
After a loss in the first set, Penn State came back to win three in a row for a win over Maryland Thursday evening (21-25, 25-17, 25-12, 25-22).
Redshirt senior Aiyana Whitney led the offense with match-high 18 kills and contributed on defense with four blocks. Following her was sophomore Haleigh Washington also with double-digit 12 kills and led the defense with seven blocks, including two solo stuffs.
Senior Megan Courtney has resumed her leadership role contributing eight blocks and six digs. Sophomore Ali Frantti came behind Courtney with seven kills and eight digs.
Redshirt freshman Bryanna Weiskircher dished out a double-double with 41 assists and 11 digs, while also putting up four blocks. She topped the team in aces as well with career-high four aces.
The first set was exciting as the two teams went point for point. Penn State was forced into two timeouts, but kept itself in the match never falling too far behind the Terps. Towards the end with the score at 23-19, Maryland, Penn State called it’s final timeout. The Nittany Lions came out of the huddle with a promising two-point gain, but fell short with a service error, which led to the match point and a Maryland win.
In the next two sets, Penn State wasted no time getting ahead and keeping its lead. They built up momentum to carry them into the fourth and final set. Maryland closed the point gap in the fourth, but Penn State was able to close out the game for the win.
The win puts the Nittany Lions at 22-2, 11-2 in the conference. The team has managed to get themselves back on top of the AVCA coaches poll at No.1 where they started at the beginning of the season.
Penn State has seven more regular season games to keep themselves at No.1 before the start of the NCAA tournament.
At the end of the month they will face the two teams that took them off the top of the rankings—Nebraska and Northwestern.
Redshirt senior Aiyana Whitney led the offense with match-high 18 kills and contributed on defense with four blocks. Following her was sophomore Haleigh Washington also with double-digit 12 kills and led the defense with seven blocks, including two solo stuffs.
Senior Megan Courtney has resumed her leadership role contributing eight blocks and six digs. Sophomore Ali Frantti came behind Courtney with seven kills and eight digs.
Redshirt freshman Bryanna Weiskircher dished out a double-double with 41 assists and 11 digs, while also putting up four blocks. She topped the team in aces as well with career-high four aces.
The first set was exciting as the two teams went point for point. Penn State was forced into two timeouts, but kept itself in the match never falling too far behind the Terps. Towards the end with the score at 23-19, Maryland, Penn State called it’s final timeout. The Nittany Lions came out of the huddle with a promising two-point gain, but fell short with a service error, which led to the match point and a Maryland win.
In the next two sets, Penn State wasted no time getting ahead and keeping its lead. They built up momentum to carry them into the fourth and final set. Maryland closed the point gap in the fourth, but Penn State was able to close out the game for the win.
The win puts the Nittany Lions at 22-2, 11-2 in the conference. The team has managed to get themselves back on top of the AVCA coaches poll at No.1 where they started at the beginning of the season.
Penn State has seven more regular season games to keep themselves at No.1 before the start of the NCAA tournament.
At the end of the month they will face the two teams that took them off the top of the rankings—Nebraska and Northwestern.
