Indiana University Athletics
Indiana University
Penn State
Hoosiers Take Out No. 4 Penn State, 3-1
10/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 9, 2010
Final Stats
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - In front a packed house at University Gym, the IU Volleyball team (14-4, 2-4) defeated the three-time defending national champion and No. 4-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions (13-4, 3-3), 3-1 (25-19, 27-25, 18-25, 26-24).
"Everybody stepped up tonight, and in order to win we needed every single person to do just that," said Head Coach Sherry Dunbar. "When you play a team like Penn State, if you don't take some big swings you're simply not going to win. I felt we did that tonight, especially early on, we took some huge swings."
Indiana's serving was also huge, belting seven aces compared to just one service ace for the Nittany Lions. Whitney Granado was the top assassin from the service line, notching four aces alone.
On the attacking front, Jordan Haverly paced the Hoosiers with 21 kills. The Cherry Valley, Ill., native carried much of the offensive burden, notching 54 attack attempts with just five errors (.296). Ashley Benson made the most of her 17 swings, converting 12 into kills while hitting at a .529 clip.
Caitlin Cox put forth a stellar performance for the second straight night, digging a match-high 15 balls. In the frontcourt, it was Benson and Mary Chaudoin leading the way with five and four blocks, respectively. Speaking of Chaudoin, she teamed with Granado to handle the setting duties and steer the Hoosier offense to a .254 hitting efficiency (53-21-126).
Indiana jumped out to a 3-0 edge in the opening set and never looked back, leading the entire way en route to a 25-19 winner. Haverly was the show in set number one, blasting seven kills on 16 errorless swings for a .438 hitting efficiency. She also chipped in five digs defensively.
Just as Penn State was creeping back into the set at 19-18, the Hoosiers pulled away with a four-point run to go ahead 23-18. A Haverly ace was responsible for point number 24 while Penn State's Blair Brown sent a serve long and out of bounds moments later to seal the 25-19 final tally.
The Hoosiers kept it coming in the second set, leading the entire way once again up until the 23-24 point when the Nittany Lions took their first advantage of the evening. Back-to-back kills by Haverly immediately handed the lead back to the Cream and Crimson, however, at 25-24. Following a PSU kill to even things up at 25-25, Haverly connected once again for the side-out; and Chaudoin fired a set-clinching ace to put IU ahead two-sets-to-none heading into the locker rooms.
Penn State came back from intermission in a big way, steamrolling the Hoosiers 25-18 while hitting .522 opposed to a .071 attack percentage for Indiana.
It was a rollercoaster ride in the fourth frame with five lead changes and 10 tied scores. Though it was a complete team effort, evidenced by five different Hoosiers recording multiple kills, co-captains Taylor Wittmer and Caitlin Cox really stepped up. With an 18-18 stalemate on the scoreboard, Wittmer roofed Blair Brown solo style and Cox rifled an ace on back-to-back plays to push IU ahead 20-18. Wittmer totaled three kills while Cox tallied four digs in the final set.
A block by the duo of Haverly and Benson fended off a Penn State set point at 23-24. Next up were a PSU attack error and Haverly's 21st kill of the evening for the 26-24 final score. Coming into the match, Indiana had not taken a set from Penn State since 2001 and had never defeated the Nittany Lions in the program's history (0-39). Penn State was riding a 102-match winning streak entering the 2010 season.
Indiana will hit the road next weekend (Oct. 15-16), playing a pair of 8 p.m. EST (7 p.m. CT) matches at Wisconsin and Illinois. Live audio broadcasts for both matches will be available right here at IUHoosiers.com as assistant director of athletic media relations Kyle Kuhlman calls all the action and provides the play-by-play.
