Press Release courtesy of Penn State Athletics.
The No. 1 Penn State women’s volleyball team will take the court this weekend at No. 17 Purdue and Indiana, with the Nittany Lions taking the Boilermakers at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 20, and the Hoosiers at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21.
SCOUTING THE BOILERMAKERS
Purdue is ranked No. 17 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll and has a 15-4 record while being 5-3 in Big Ten play. Three of the Boilermaker loses were to top-ten opponents in then-No. 7 Kansas, then No. 6 Minnesota, and then-No. 4 Nebraska. The fourth loss came to Ohio State. Danielle Cuttino leads Purdue’s offense with 4.23 kills per set, hitting .340 on the outside. Sherridan Atkinson adds 3.34 kills per set. Ashley Evans is running the offense with 11.60 assists per set, while the offense is hitting .327 per set.
SCOUTING THE HOOSIERS
Indiana is 11-9 on the season, but have yet to take a match in conference play with a 0-8 record. Kendall Beerman is averaging 3.57 kills per set while adding 2.63 digs per set. Deyshia Lofton adds 2.22 kills per set at .355 hitting. She also adds a team-high 1.12 blocks per set. Victoria Brisack is averaging 11.22 assists per set, and 2.07 digs per set. Indiana opened the season on a ten-match win-streak, but are now on an eight-match losing streak.
FIRST SERVE
>> Haleigh Washington is 14 kills away from 1,000. She will be the third player on the roster to reach that mark this season as Ali Frantti was the first on Aug. 26 at West Virginia, and Simone Lee followed on Oct. 6 at Ohio State.
>> Currently, one other program in all of DI is in position to join Penn State with three potential active 1,000 kill players as NC State is waiting on Kaitlyn Kearney (981) to join Julia Brown (1,154) and Bree Bailey (1,094).
>> The last time Penn State had three active 1,000 kill club members was in 2008. Entering the season, Megan Hodge and Nicole Fawcett were already past the mark, but on Sept. 5, 2008, Christa Harmotto joined the club as well.
>> When Washington joins the club, it will be the first time in Penn State history that three players have joined in the same season.
>> The marks the 66th week the Nittany Lions have been at No. 1 in the poll since the end of the 2006 season, and the 91st time in the history of the poll. The Nittany Lions’ first No. 1 Ranking came on Sept. 2, 1997, and the poll was started in 1982.
>> The Big Ten took up half of the Top-Ten spots as Minnesota came in at No. 5, Nebraska at No. 7, Wisconsin at No. 9, and Michigan State at No. 10, all joining the Nittany Lions. Purdue wrapped up the ranked B1G members as the Boilermakers came in at No. 17.
>> Penn State leads the nation in hitting percentage at 0.347. Highlighting that is Haleigh Washington who leads the nation at 0.506.
>> Kendall White earned her first Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honor. White is the fourth Nittany Lion to be honored by the Big Ten this season. Haleigh Washington (9/4, 10/2, 10/9), Simone Lee (9/18), and Ali Frantti (9/11) have all earned Big Ten Player of the Week honors.
>> White (Indianapolis, Ind.) is the first Nittany Lion to earn the Defensive Player of the Week honor in three seasons as the last was Dominique Gonzalez (2011-14) when she earned the award on Sept. 29, 2014.
RECORD AGAINST 2017 OPPONENTS
Penn State owns a 600-115 (.839) combined series record against its 2017 opponents, including a 454-66 (.873) mark in Big Ten matches since joining the conference in 1991. The Nittany Lions own a 539-104-1 (.840) mark all-time against current Big Ten opponents.
BIG TEN COACHES SELECT PENN STATE TO WIN 2017 CONFERENCE TITLE
Penn State opens the season ranked No. 1 in the Big Ten Preseason Poll, released by the conference early this week. The Big Ten Preseason poll is selected by votes from all 14 conference head coaches.
UP NEXT
Penn State will return home for a Wednesday night Big Ten Network game versus No. 9 Wisconsin at 7 p.m. on Oct. 25. This will be the Nittany Lions’ Dig Pink game. Single-game tickets for the 2017 Penn State women’s volleyball matches are available here at http://gopsu.info/vbsinglegametickets .
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