Penn State Volleyball Reverse Swept By No. 1 Nebraska In Sold-Out Rec Hall

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

No. 16 Penn State women’s volleyball lost to No. 1 Nebraska in five sets Friday night in front of a sell-out crowd of 6,645 at Rec Hall during the program’s annual White Out match.

After winning the first two sets, the Nittany Lions (15-7, 9-4 Big Ten) cooled off a bit down the stretch, as Merritt Beason put on a show for the undefeated Huskers (22-0, 13-0 Big Ten), tallying a career-high 27 kills and hitting .426. Jess Mruzik led Penn State with 21 kills, eight digs, four total blocks, and two assists in the loss.

Box Score

Friday night was also the team’s THON match, raising awareness and funds to fight pediatric cancer, as the wRECking Crew student section featured a gold ribbon among the sea of white shirts. Penn State’s players also wore gold ribbons. Junior setter/defensive specialist Quinn Menger is dancing in this year’s THON, which takes place February 16-18, 2024, as part of Penn State’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). You can donate to Menger’s campaign here.

Mac Podraza guided Penn State’s offense to a .552 hitting percentage with zero attack errors in the first set, helping the Nittany Lions respond in dominant fashion from a straight-sets loss to Nebraska on October 14 in Lincoln. Although the second set was much closer, Penn State remained efficient and hit .394 to take a 2-0 lead.

The Huskers were again without injured pin hitter Lindsay Krause, who wore a walking boot on Nebraska’s bench. She last played in the Huskers’ win over Penn State earlier this season at the Devaney Center. On Friday night, they relied on excellent showings from freshmen Bergen Reilly and Harper Murray, who had double-doubles.

Late in the fifth set, with the score tied 10-10, the Huskers went on a 3-1 run to put serious pressure on the Nittany Lions, who remained calm and eventually tied it back up at 13-13 following a Nebraska attack error and double block from Allie Holland and Zoe Weatherington. Consecutive kills from Murray and Beason helped Nebraska complete the comeback and take the match, however.

Weatherington and Taylor Trammell were big reasons why the Nittany Lions out-blocked Nebraska 17-9, as they had season-high performances with eight and 10 total blocks, respectively. They also added nine kills apiece, while Camryn Hannah had 10 kills of her own. Hannah and Weatherington were among five substitutes for Penn State, as senior defensive specialist Maddy Bilinovic returned to the starting lineup and had nine digs and an assist. Weatherington surpassed 1,000 career kills in the match.

Sophomore libero Gill Grimes had a team-high 17 digs and an assist, firing her team up throughout the match with some spirited celebrations. Holland had seven kills, five total blocks, and a dig, while Anjelina Starck had eight digs and a kill to round out the scoring for the Nittany Lions, who fell to 11-27 in the all-time series against Nebraska. The Huskers have now won seven straight matches in the series, as Penn State last won in 2018.

Katie Schumacher-Cawley, Jess Mruzik, and Taylor Trammell took to the podium following the loss to discuss some of the key factors that led to Nebraska prevailing, and how the setback can serve as motivation for the team heading into a crucial road match against No. 19 Purdue Sunday at 1 p.m. at Holloway Gymnasium. The transcript of questions and answers can be found below.

Schumacher-Cawley’s opening statement:

“First of all, I just want to thank the community, the students, the athletes, the THON families, and everyone who made this such a special night. It was a great environment. You can’t ask for anything better than that. I’m proud of the way our team fought, but not the way we wanted it to end. But hey, you have to learn from this and move on. That’s a very good team. [There were] short windows of time to take over, and we need to get that done.”

Coach, what are some things that you thought Nebraska did particularly well tonight?

KSC: “They don’t stop. I thought they were taking big swings. I thought they played the complete game moving forward and they don’t quit on it. I think that’s a really nice team.”

Coach, you had four players with at least nine kills. What’s it like having that kind of depth from your hitters?

KSC: “I thought Mac [Podraza] and the middles did a good job. They were finding ways to score. That was something we were working on this week. I like to see our players take big swings, so I’m proud of the way they did that, and they didn’t quit at the end. If we pass well, we can score.”

You talked about learning and moving on. What are some things you can take from this match, both good and bad, that will help you down the road?

KSC: “This conference is relentless. You need to be able to move on quickly and learn from it. I thought we served much tougher than we have been. We had a couple errors. I’m not going to tell them to serve aggressively and keep it in, so we were serving tough, and unfortunately had a couple tough errors. We had 17 blocks. That’s a good number. We need to find a way to stop the runs of points. I think that happened in the third, fourth, and a little bit in the fifth set. I think these guys understand that and they know what they have to do. They need to continue to work together and get better.”

Jess, what kind of challenges did [Merritt] Beason pose for you guys?

Mruzik: “She’s a great player. Katie says it all the time, ‘Everyone has their players.’ And she’s definitely one of their go-tos. I think she’s a great all-around player. She gets up there and puts up a nice block. She mixes it up when she’s attacking. I thought, personally, I could have done a better job of adjusting on her, but that’s just something we need to do a better job of moving forward.”

Taylor, how do you think the team can use this loss as motivation?

Trammell: “Well, obviously, our next game is against Purdue, and they recently lost to Wisconsin as well. One team is going to lose twice this weekend, and obviously we don’t want to be that team. I think the motivation from that purpose is really hitting me. That’s my old school, so I’m trying to beat them. But I’ll say, too, tonight, we set a standard for ourselves that I think we’re never going to forget. I hope that we pull that through for this weekend.”