Penn State took their fourth ranked win (in five matches) against the Minnesota Golden Gophers in 4 sets. Kennedy Martin had her best match of the season with 35.5 points from 34 kills and 3 blocks. Whitney Lauenstein (10 kills, 0.348 hitting percentage) and Emmi Sellman (9 kills, 1 ace, 1 block) combined for 20.5 points in the win.

With the end of the B1G season in sight and the inaugural B1G Tournament, every win matters. Penn State and Minnesota had been gathering momentum as each team was on a winning streak: 3 wins in a row for Minnesota and 5 wins in a row for Penn State. Just last year, the two teams had a very close match, with Minnesota edging out Penn State for the win in Maturi Pavillion. This year, the Nittany Lions were back and looking to get some payback.

The first set started in the favor of the Golden Gophers as they took a 2-6 lead with strong serving. However, the Nittany Lions surged back with strong hitting and timely defensive stops. The Nittany Lions took the lead from the Gophers at 10-9 and never let go, finishing the set with a 25-21 win. Kennedy Martin led all scorers in the set with 9 kills. Both teams were firing offensively, with neither side not able to contain the other. Minnesota hit 0.484 while Penn State hit 0.536 — defense was not a hallmark of that set!  Serving became the edge in the set with Penn State having 3 aces to Minnesota’s 1. Alexis Stucky earned 2 of the 3 aces in the set and added 16 assists.

Penn State started Set 2 better as they took an early lead. The Nittany Lions were never behind in the second set and only tied twice at 11-11 and 15-15. The Nittany Lions defense was also better able to contain the Golden Gophers’ offense. Minnesota hit 0.241 to Penn State’s 0.457. Penn State scored 21 or their 25 points in the set with Kennedy Martin scoring 10 kills and 1 block. The rest of the team combined for 8 kills for a strong 18-kill performance in the set. The team also did not hit any unforced attack errors, but committed 6 service errors on route to the 25-20 Set 2 win for the Nittany Lions.

The Golden Gophers were not going to let the Nittany Lions sweep them at home as they took a strong start to Set 3. With the aggressive Minnesota serving giving the Penn State passers a difficult time, the Gophers took a 10-15 lead over the Lions.  The Nittany Lions were unable to keep it close, as the Gophers, behind the strong performances of McKenna Wucherer (23 points), Kelly Kinney (15 points) and strong serving of McKenna Garr (3 aces), triumphed in the 3rd set, 19-25. The Nittany Lions and Golden Gophers both hit 0.406 but the strong serving from Minnesota led to the Nittany Lions having fewer opportunities to kill the ball.

Set 4 looked like the Nittany Lions were going to run away from the Gophers, as they started the set a 7-1 run. But Minnesota started to bring out the gritty defense that they are known for this season. Together with their strong serving, the Gophers caused the Nittany Lions to string a few errors together and tied the match 15-15. The two teams traded points until 19-19. Minnesota looked like they were going to push the Nittany Lions to 5 sets when they took a 21-19 lead. But a well-timed timeout by the coaching staff, allowed the team to collect themselves and string together 6 points in a row to take the set 25-21. The Gophers were able to contain Kennedy Martin to 5 kills in the set but strong supporting performance from Emmi Sellman (4 kills), Haley Burgdorf (3 kills) and Whitney Lauenstein (5 kills, 4 of the last 5 points were scored by Lauenstein) took the Nittany Lions to the win.

Kennedy Martin reached a milestone 2000 kills in the end of the first set. She tied her career-high of 34 kills with 0.500 hitting percentage. And earned 3 blocks as well as 12 digs. This marks her 5th double-double this season. Alexis Stucky had her 8th double-double performance as she contributed a season-high 55 assists and a team-high 15 digs. She set the team to a 0.394 hitting efficiency (second highest this season).

Including her two seasons at Florida, Martin had totaled 2,225 career kills, (1,021 in her matches at Penn State). She is one of four Penn State players to have reached 2,000 career kills, joining former Penn State All-Americans Lori Barberich (1981-1984) Megan Hodge (2006-2009) and Jess Mruzik (2020-2024).

Whitney Lauenstein had a relatively quiet night until the last 6 points of the set where she scored 4 points. She ended the match with 10 points from 10 kills and a hitting percentage of 0.348. Emmi Sellman backed up her strong performance last match with 9 kills (0.320 hitting percentage), 1 ace and 1 block. Gabrielle Nichols led the team in blocks with 4, she also pitched in 6 kills for a total of 8.5 points.

Penn State led Minnesota in kills (68-58), digs (57-50), hitting percentage (0.394 – 0.313) and blocks (6-4). Despite the strong start in serving, Penn State fell behind Minnesota as the Gophers totaled more aces (7 vs 4) and fewer serving errors (7-11). The Nittany Lions also had an unusually high number of blocking errors, with 6 compared to only one for the Gophers.

With the win Penn State goes up to 18-5 in the season and 10-3 in the B1G. The Nittany Lions will continue their away trip against #8 Wisconsin on Sunday.

Box Score

Match Details