No. 3 Penn State Fights Off Northwestern, 3-0
Sept. 22, 2007 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Northwestern put a serious scare into the nation's third-ranked team Saturday night in University Park, Pa., forcing extra points in the first game and hanging point-for-point in the second before ultimately falling in a sweep to four-time defending Big Ten champion Penn State, 31-29, 30-23, 30-13. The loss snaps Northwestern's eight-match winning streak -- its second longest under head coach Keylor Chan and the best since a nine-match streak in 2003 -- dropping the Wildcats to 10-3 on the season, 1-1 in the Big Ten. Penn State improves to 10-2 on the year with the win, 2-0 in the conference. Game one was as tight an affair as it could be between the third-ranked Nittany Lions and the Wildcats. NU held an early three-point lead, 5-2, after a Brittani Gray (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sycamore) kill, then the teams fought tooth-and-nail until a Lindsay Anderson (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) kill and a Penn State hitting error gave NU a 22-20 lead and caused a Penn State timeout. The kill gave Anderson 1,263 for her career, tying her with Carmen Burbach (1997-2000) for ninth on NU's all-time list.
Penn State came out of the break and quickly tied the score, 23-23, and Chan used his first timeout of the game. Anderson notched another kill to again knot the game, 24-24, and move into ninth on the career kills list all by herself. The teams alternated points until PSU had a 27-26 edge, and Chan burned his second timeout. Gray got another kill out of the break, but Penn State earned two game points, 29-27. A PSU hitting error and a block from Sabel Moffett (Temecula, Calif./Chaparral) and Courtnie Paulus (Belgium, Wis./Ozaukee) tied the game for the 'Cats, 29-29, but Penn State scored the final two points to win game one, 31-29.
Gray had seven kills and Kate Nobilio (Johnsburg, Ill./Johnsburg) had eight digs in the first game for Northwestern. An ace from Chelsy Hyser (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere) completed a 6-2 Northwestern run to begin game two. Penn State continually cut the lead to one but Northwestern resisted with spurts of its own until the Nittany Lions reeled off a 5-0 run to take a 17-15 lead, and the Wildcats called timeout. NU responded out of the break with a 3-0 run featuring a Gray termination to take an 18-17 lead. The teams traded points and ties until a quick 3-0 spurt from PSU led to NU's second timeout of the game with the Wildcats' deficit at three, 24-21. The Nittany Lions continued their run to end the game and take a 2-0 lead in the match, 30-23. Penn State came out on absolute fire in game three, taking a 15-4 lead and forcing Chan to use both timeouts in the early going. Northwestern never was able to come untracked, falling 30-13 to conclude the match. Gray led NU with 10 kills, while Nobilio had a team-best 13 digs. Hyser hit a team-high .375 (8-2-16) and had a team-best five blocks for the 'Cats Northwestern returns to action in its Big Ten home opener at 7 p.m. CT Friday, Sept. 28, against No. 9 Wisconsin. |
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