Women’s Volleyball: Ohio State falls to Top-Ranked Penn State – Ohio State Buckeyes
10/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
COLUMBUS, Ohio The Ohio State women’s volleyball team (10-10 overall, 1-7 Big Ten) fell, 0-3 (15-25, 14-25, 12-25), to top-ranked Penn State (20-0, 8-0) Saturday night in Rec Hall. Buckeye Katie Dull had a team-high nine points in the contest with eight kills and a solo block. Penn State’s Nicole Fawcett posted a match-high 19.5 points with 16 kills, three ace serves and an assist block.
Trailing, 2-1, in the first set, Ohio State tied the match at two with an Allie Schwarzwalder-Kristen Dozier block. Penn State responded with kills from Christa Harmotto and Arielle Wilson and two Harmotto ace serves to take a 6-2 lead. Trailing, 13-9, a Kaila Calhoun kill and an ace serve from Dull cut the Penn State lead to two at 13-11. An OSU error and a Wilson-Blair Brown block made it 15-11, Penn State. The Nittany Lions reached set point at 24-15 with a Fawcett kill. Penn State won the set, 25-15, with an Alisha Glass kill. The Nittany Lions hit .370 for the set to .067 for the Buckeyes.
An OSU error gave Penn State a 1-0 lead in set two. A Dozier kill tied the set at one. An ace serve from Sarah Mignin made it 2-1, OSU. Fawcett tied the set at two with a kill. The Buckeyes took a 3-2 lead with a Calhoun kill. Fawcett, with four consecutive kills, and an OSU error gave Penn State a 7-3 lead. At 9-5, Penn State kills from Fawcett and Wilson, two from Megan Hodge and a Fawcett ace serve opened up a 14-5 Nittany Lion lead. Leading, 22-14, a Hodge kill, two Nittany Lion blocks from Harmotto-Hodge and Brown-Harmotto gave Penn State set point at 24-14. A Buckeye error ended the set at 25-14, giving Penn State a 2-0 lead in the match. Penn State hit .636 in the set to .190 for Ohio State.
Penn State opened the third set with a Harmotto-Glass block and with an OSU error took a 2-0 lead. A Nittany Lion error made it 2-1. A Harmotto solo block and kills from Fawcett and Harmotto opened a 5-1 Penn State lead. The Nittany Lions continued to build the lead, reaching match point at 24-11 off an OSU error. A Penn State error stopped the first match point at 24-12. A Wilson kill ended the set at 25-12 for a 3-0 match win for Penn State. The Nittany Lions hit .286 in the set to -.194 for the Buckeyes.
Penn State hit .416 for the match to OSU’s .000. The Nittany Lions had a 40-21 advantage in kills and a 5-3 margin in ace serves. Each team gave up seven service errors. Defensively, Penn State had a 30-22 margin in digs with Roberta Holehouse recording a match-high 10 for the Nittany Lions. At the net, Penn State had a 10-3 advantage in team blocks. PSU’s Harmotto posted a match-high seven blocks with a solo and six assists. At setter, Penn State’s Glass recorded a match high 32 assists with OSU’s Betsy Hone collecting 15.
Ohio State returns home next weekend to face No. 12 Minnesota and Iowa. The Buckeyes host the Golden Gophers at 7 p.m. Friday and will play the Hawkeyes at 2 p.m. Sunday. Both matches will be played in St. John Arena.
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