Penn State Sweeps Howard, Increases Win-Streak to fFve
Penn State began the season ranked No. 9 in the AVCA Coaches' poll, but has since fallen to No. 20 over the last four weeks.
Yet the Nittany Lions continued a recent winning streak - increasing it to five games and record to 7-3 on the season - as they rolled the Howard Bison in straight sets 25-16, 25-12 and 25-16 at Rec Hall Saturday morning as part of the Penn State Classic tournament.
Simone Lee led the way for the Lions with 12 kills, and was the trigger-woman for the Lions racking up 32 kill attempts. Haleigh Washington followed behind with eight kills ,and Ai Frantti and Heidi Thelen contributed with seven kills each.
After the Lions won the first set Friday night against Rhode Island 25-6 en route to sweeping the Rams, the Howard Bison tenaciously hung around in each set before the Lions pulled away midway through.
Bisons' junior Khaila Donaldson reached the 1000-kill milestone with her third kill of the morning, and finished with seven in the match along with 11 digs. Her ten errors, however, dropped her hit percentage to -.091.
The Lions found themselves using Washington and Lee on their trademarked set plays at each antenna, which proved too much for the Bison to consistently stop. Lions' setter Abby Detering contributed on the attack with kills of her own, faking the sets to Washington and Lee on the outsides. Detering finished with 31 assists as well.
The Lions will meet the Clemson Tigers tonight at 7 p.m. to finish the Penn State Classic at Rec Hall.
John Petrolias is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. You can reach him at jjp5551@psu.edu.
