#11 Penn State def. #4 Nebraska 3-2 (25-22, 11-25, 24-26, 25-23, 15-9)
- Penn State moves to 15-3, 6-2 Big Ten; Nebraska falls to 15-3, 6-2 Big Ten
- Box Score
- Penn State Recap / Nebraska Recap
“It is definitely a big win,” Penn State’s top scorer Nia Reed said. “I think we really came together as a team after the second set because they crushed us. We had a really good serve pass gave so that helped as well.”
The Penn State comeback win snapped a seven-match losing skid against the Huskers with the last win coming on Nov. 29, 2014 in University Park. PSU had lost four of those seven matches in five sets.
The Nittany Lions won the match despite being outdone by Nebraska in every statistical category: kills (64-59), hitting efficiency (.210 to .172), aces (5-4) and blocks (13-10).
Reed posted a match-high 20 kills and three blocks. Taylor Leath (10), Tori Gorrell (9), Jonni Parker (8) and Serena Gray (8) rounded out the Penn State offense. Leath finished off a double-double with 15 digs, while Gorrell hit at a team-best .467 clip (9-2-15). Gray put up a team-high six blocks, while Parker and Gorrell turned in four apiece. Bryanna Weiskircher added 48 assists, 16 digs, three blocks and an ace.
Lexi Sun notched 20 kills and digs for Nebraska. Mikaela Foecke added 17 putaways, 18 digs and four blocks, while Jazz Sweet and Lauren Stivrins chipped in 10 kills apiece. Callie Schwarzenbach added six kills and a team-best seven blocks.
The Nittany Lions made just two hitting errors in Set 5, while forcing five by the Huskers, outhitting their foes .222 to .071. PSU led 8-5 at the changeover with help from four Reed putaways. Nebraska was within two at 8-6, but could not stop Penn State which wrapped up the win on a 7-3 run. Three Husker miscues and a kill by Reed set up the final point, which came on a Weiskircher ace.
PSU held Nebraska to a .081 hitting effort in Set 1. The teams played to a 22-all tie, before kills by Parker and Leath and a Husker hitting error gave the home team the 25-22 win.
The Huskers rebounded to post a .448 effort and limit the Nittany Lions to a .059 clip in Set 2 thanks in part to five blocks. Nebraska built an eight-point lead at 15-7 and never looked back. Three kills by Sun and two by Sweet plus aces by Foecke and Sun gave the Huskers the lead. A final 10-4 push, capped by back-to-back stuffs by Schwarzenbach, wrapped up the 25-11 drubbing.
Both teams found their offensive footing in Set 3, with Penn State boasting a .415 to .386 advantage. The stanza featured four lead changes, the last of which saw Nebraska overcome a PSU set-point try at 24-23 to score three in a row to clinch the victory. Two Sun putaway and an ace by Nicklin Hames gave the Huskers the 2-1 lead in the match.
Penn State notched six blocks as both teams struggled in Set 4, with neither hitting better than .100 (Nebraska .070 – PSU .023). The Nittany Lions went up 9-4 early, but Nebraska charged back to take a 14-13 lead of its own on a solo stuff by Schwarzenbach. The Huskers pushed the margin to three at 20-17, but momentum swung to Penn State at 22-21 on an ace by Kendall White. PSU earned the first set-point try at 24-23 on a block by Gray and Parker and a Sweet hitting error sent the match to tiebreak.
S5 | LOOK AT THAT BLOCK! pic.twitter.com/sX6FJyjfJ3
— Penn State Women’s Volleyball (@PennStateVBALL) October 14, 2018
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