No. 15 Volleyball Upsets No. 6 Penn State, 3-2 – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/26/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 26, 2001
Box Score | Complete Results
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The 15th-ranked Ohio State (11-0 overall, 3-0 Big Ten) women’s volleyball squad, trailing sixth-ranked Penn State (8-2, 2-1) two games to one, rallied to defeat the Nittany Lions in five games. OSU’s 30-24, 28-30, 28-30, 31-29, 15-12 win came in front of 931 fans who had to wait two hours and 16 minutes for the final outcome. Buckeye Stacey Gordon (Fr., Oshawa, Ontario), last week’s Big Ten Player of the Week, recorded a career-highs of 25 kills and 21 digs in the match. Anne Botica (Sr., Windsor, Ontario) added 21 kills, Suzie Stiling (Jr., Glenview, Ill.) 15 and Erin Baker (Sr., Elmhurst, Ill) 10. Penn State’s Katie Schumacher (Sr., Chicago, Ill.) had a match/career high of 27 kills, adding 16 digs. Teammate Mishka Levy (Sr., Houston, Texas) added 12 kills for the Nittany Lions.
The Ohio State victory stopped a ten-match winning streak by the Nittany Lions over the Buckeyes, dating back to 1996. OSU’s last win over Penn State came on Oct. 16 in St. John Arena. The 3-2 (8-17, 10-11, 14-10, 17-10, 17-15) victory came in an experimental TV format based on timed games. The Buckeyes had won six consecutive matches over PSU prior to the former Nittany Lion streak.
Ohio State opened game one with 10 consecutive points off the serve of Shelly Draeger (Jr., Milwaukee, Wis.). That run had seven Penn State errors and two kills from Botica and one from Stiling. With a 20-10 OSU lead, Penn State begin to cut the margin a point or two at a time. Trailing 24-16, the Nittany Lions scored four consecutive points off kills by Cara Smith (So., Lafayette, Ind.) and Schumacher and solo blocks by Smith and Schumacher to cut the lead to 24-20. The lead was cut to three (25-22) on an ace by Smith. A Botica kill put the lead to four, 26-22. A Buckeye error cut the lead to 26-23. A Nittany Lion service error followed by a Baker kill made it 28-23. A Buckeye service error made it 28-24. Botica’s kill set game point at 29-24 and a Nittany Lion error ended the game at 30-24. Ohio State hit .297 for the game to .029 for Penn State. Botica had six kills for OSU while Gordon collected 10 digs for the Buckeyes. PSU’s Schumacher had eight kills. From a four-all tied in game two, Ohio State opened up a five point lead (15-10). Penn State cut the OSU lead to one (23-22) with a Shannon Bortner (Sr., Jacobus, Pa.) kill. A Stiling kill put the lead at 24-22. Two buckeye errors tied the game at 24. A Botica kill gave OSU a 25-24 edge, but an OSU service error tied the game at 25. A kill by Hilary Sexton (Jr., Crystal Lake, Ill.) put Penn State ahead 26-25 and an ace serve by Bortner made the Nittany Lion lead two at 27-25 as Ohio State called time out. OSU’s Gordon and PSU’s Schumacher exchanged kills (28-26) and then OSU’s Botica and Schumacher traded kills to set game point for Penn State at 29-27. Botica’s kill stopped the attempt at 29-28 but a block by solo block by Nadia Edwards (Sr., Frankfort, Ill.) ended the game at 30-28, Penn State. The Nittany Lions hit .282 for the game to .231 for Ohio State. OSU’s Botica had a game-high nine kills with PSU’s Schumacher adding six.
Ohio State built up a 10-3 lead in game three. The Nittany Lions slowly recovered and trailed 17-16 when an OSU service error tied the game at 17. Four ties later, the match stood at 22-all. A Levy kill and a block by Smith and Jessica Hayden (So., South Laguna Beach, Calif.) put Penn State ahead 24-22. Back-to-back service errors advanced the score to 25-23. A Baker kill cut the lead to 25-24. Two OSU errors put the Nittany Lions up three at 27-24. A Stiling kill cut the lead to 27-25. Schumacher’s kill made it 28-25. Stiling responded with a kill at 28-26. A Schumacher-Edwards block set game point at 29-26. Buckeye kills by Gordon and Baker cut the lead to 29-28 but a Levy kill ended the game with a 30-28 Penn State win. The Nittany Lions hit .344 for the game to .174 for Ohio State. OSU’s Stiling and Gordon had six kills each in the game with Schumacher collecting four for Penn State.
Two Ohio State errors and a Hayden kill gave Penn State a 3-0 lead in game four. Trailing 5-2, Ohio State used kills by Stiling and Baker and a Stiling ace serve to tie the match at five. Levy and Gordon traded kills to make it six-all. Both team committed errors to tie the game at seven. A Block by Levy and Smith and a Levy kill put Penn State ahead 9-7. Penn State expanded the margin to five at 18-13. An ace serve by Katie Virtue (Jr., St. Charles, Ill.), a block by Gordon and Baker and a PSU error cut the lead to 18-16 as Penn State called time out. A Hayden kill made it 19-16 but a Gordon kill, a block by Baker and Draeger and a Botica kill tied the game at 19. A Baker kill gave OSU a 20-19 edge but a Levy kill tied it at 20. Kills by Baker and Smith moved the tie to 21. A Buckeye error put PSU ahead 22-21, but a Stiling kill tied it at 22. An OSU service error gave PSU a 23-22 lead. Gordon’s kill tied the game at 23. Schumacher’s kill gave PSU a 24-23 edge. Stiling’s kill tied the game at 24. A kill by Levy put the Nittany Lions ahead, 25-24. Gordon’s kill tied the game at 25. A Buckeye service error put Penn State ahead 26-25 and a Schumacher kill expanded the lead to 27-25. Gordon’s kill cut the Penn State lead to 27-26 but an OSU service error made it 28-26, Penn State. A kill by Draeger cut the Penn State lead to one at 28-27. A Schumacher kill made it 29-27, Penn State with the Nittany Lions serving for the match. A Penn State error made it 29-28 and a Stiling kill tied the game at 29. An overpass kill by Virtue returned the lead to Ohio State at 30-29 and a Nittany Lion error ended the game at 31-29 for Ohio State, tying the match at two games each. Ohio State hit .366 for the game to .250 for Penn State. OSU’s Gordon contributed seven kills in the game with Stiling adding five. Levy had seven kills for Penn State with Schumacher adding five in the game.
Tied at four-all in game five, kills by Levy and Hayden and a Buckeye error opened a 7-4 Penn State lead as Ohio State called time out. Kills by Gordon and Botica and two PSU errors gave Ohio State an 8-7 lead. A Buckeye service error tied the game at eight. A Draeger kill and a Nikki Cisco (Sr., Dublin, Ohio) ace gave Ohio State a 10-8 lead as Penn State called time out. A Schumacher kill cut the lead to 10-9, but a PSU error made it 11-9. Two Schumacher kills tied the game at 11. A Nittany Lion service error gave Ohio State a 12-11 lead, but an OSU error tied the game at 12. A hitting error by Penn State made it 13-12, Ohio State, as Penn State called time out. A block by Virtue and Baker set match point at 14-12 for Ohio State and a Gordon kill closed the game at 15-12 for a 3-2 Ohio State victory. The Buckeyes hit .208 for the game to .130 for Penn State. Gordon and Schumacher each had four kills in the game.
For the match Ohio State hit .257 to .212 for Penn State. The Buckeyes had a 82-63 kill advantage. OSU had a 63-31 edge in digs and outserved the Nittany Lions 11 to four. Ohio State did commit 22 service errors to eight for Penn State. The Nittany Lions had a 13 to seven blocking margin. PSU’s Smith had a match-high six blocks (1-5) while OSU’s Baker collected five assist blocks. OSU’s Virtue had a season-high 65 assists in the match with Penn State’s Hayden collecting 51.
Ohio State returns to action this Friday at 7 p.m. when they host Purdue (1-7, 1-1) in St. John Arena
