Penn State Tops Iowa on Homecoming Weekend
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Penn State women's volleyball defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday at Rec Hall. They won in three sets with sacores of 25-19, 25-17, and 25-21. The Nittany Lions improve to 3-1 in the Big Ten and 10-3 overall.
Following a tough loss to Wisconsin on the road, Penn State head coach Russ Rose made it clear he wanted to bounce back in dominant fashion. His team did just that.
“It’s a challenging conference,” Rose said. “You need to find a way to pick yourself back up when you get beat. I think we did that tonight.”
Nittany Lion middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord helped lead the way once again. Hord finished the contest with a team leading 11 kills and five blocks.
“We played for each other,” Hord said. “It was a really positive environment. We fed off each others chemistry.”
A problem that still exists for the Nittany Lions have been service errors. In tonight's match they tallied 13 service errors, something Russ Rose says needs to be cleaned up.
“Other than a number of service errors, I thought we played really well. We gave them the opportunity to have points without them having to earn those points the old fashioned way,” Rose said.
Iowa, the heavy underdogs, gave Penn State a challenge in set three. Incredible and chaotic rallies had the crowd involved and made for entertaining points.
"Those big rallies help a lot,” Hord said. “The crowd gets into it and we feed off it. We call it Benergy. It means 'bench energy.'”
Penn State has never posted less than 22 wins in a season with Rose as the head coach. The Nittany Lions are currently on pace to top that total once again.
Penn State has never suffered a loss to Iowa. The Nittany Lions have now won 28 consecutive sets against the Hawkeyes dating back to 2012.
Penn State’s home stand will continue as they look to take on Maryland Oct. 11 at Rec Hall.
Kyle Cannillo is a sophomore at Penn State studying broadcast journalism. If you would like to contact him, please email kcannillo1@gmail.com.
