Penn State Volleyball Beats Yale 3-1 To Wrap Up Non-Conference Play

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

No. 3 Penn State women’s volleyball beat Yale 3-1 Sunday afternoon at Rec Hall to win the Penn State Classic and close out non-conference play at 10-1 on the season.

The Nittany Lions also beat the Bulldogs in four sets in the first round of the 2023 NCAA tournament in Lawrence, Kansas, and just like last December, Jess Mruzik had another strong outing. Mruzik had 15 kills this time around, while Camryn Hannah had a match-high 18 in the win.

Box Score

There were plenty of big performances to go around for the Nittany Lions, as Izzy Starck tallied a double-double with 47 assists, 12 digs, five kills, two aces, and two blocks. Starck earned a spot on the Penn State Classic all-tournament team alongside Mruzik, who was named MVP, and libero Gill Grimes. The star setter also shared Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors with USC’s Jadyn Livings. It was Starck’s third time being recognized so far.

Grimes had a career-high 27 digs against the Bulldogs, six assists, one ace, and a rare libero kill, while freshman defensive specialist Ava Falduto also had a career-high 15 digs in the win. Maggie Mendelson was dominant in both phases of the game with 10 kills (.526) and a match-high six blocks. Fellow middle blocker Taylor Trammell added eight kills (.375) and four blocks, continuing her efficient play this season.

The Nittany Lions started a little slow offensively in the first set (.205) before hitting over .400 the last three sets. Yale’s Betsy Goodenow had 16 kills and nine digs to lead the Bulldogs, who jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the third set before eventually winning the final two points on a Goodenow kill and Isabella Mendoza ace to break a 23-23 tie.

Caroline Jurevicius had six kills (.308), two assists, and a block, while Anjelina Starck did a little bit of everything with eight digs, three kills, two blocks, an ace, and an assist, living up to her billing as Penn State’s Swiss Army knife, which Katie Schumacher-Cawley bestowed upon the senior co-captain during her Tuesday press conference last week.

Yale head coach Erin Appleman, who was an assistant coach at Penn State while Schumacher-Cawley played for the Nittany Lions, always has her perennial Ivy League championship-contending team prepared for big matches, and the Bulldogs did some nice things Sunday. Appleman and Schumacher-Cawley hugged and said a few words by the scorer’s table before the match.

The now-No. 4 Nittany Lions will begin Big Ten play on the road Wednesday at 7 p.m. in West Lafayette, Indiana, when they face No. 10 Purdue (9-2) in Holloway Gymnasium. The match will air on Big Ten Network, as former Ohio State and Penn State setter Mac Podraza, who now plays for the Omaha Supernovas of the Pro Volleyball Federation, will make her color commentary debut.

Schumacher-Cawley, Mruzik, and Mendelson spoke to the media following Penn State’s 3-1 win over Yale Sunday afternoon. The full transcript of questions and answers can be found below and highlights of the match are underneath their comments.

Opening statement:Β 

KSC: “Thanks for coming out on a Sunday. We appreciate it. Winning is hard. I thought Yale played extremely well and had a lot of energy. I think these guys found a way to score here and keep us in the match. Overall, preseason is done, and I’m happy where we’re at, but know that there is a lot of work to still do.”

Coach, what was the message to your team after the third set?

KSC: “We made too many errors, and they were scoring. I don’t think we did a good job blocking in that set. They had 19 kills. That’s a lot of points. I thought we rebounded well and blocked a few more [in the fourth set]. I thought we were a little bit more focused.”

For the players, after [hitting .205 in] the first set, you hit above .400 [the last three sets]. How did you turn things around?

Mruzik: “I think volleyball is super unique in the sense that, after a set is done, the momentum kind of resets. We like to use that time to just completely reset our game. It’s a new start and a new beginning each set. I think that’s a unique aspect about volleyball that we’re pretty good at, flushing sets and moving on quickly.”

Mendelson: “Yeah, I think it’s also helpful that we have really good teammates on the sideline, who are telling us things that they see that we might not be seeing as we’re playing. It’s just a different view of it, which is really helpful.”

Maggie, you’ve talked before about the connection that you and Izzy have formed early in the season. It seemed like the connection was on-point today. Why do you think that was?

Mendelson: “Izzy’s done a really good job of working with me. The last few games haven’t been my best, but Izzy’s stayed patient with me, and I’m really grateful for that.”

Jess, what impressed you about Gill and Ava today?

Mruzik: “Quinn [Menger] and I were actually talking during the third set about how freely and recklessly Gill was playing. I think that’s when she’s playing her best. And same with Ava. Volleyball is a lot easier when you’re not thinking as much and just playing freely. I thought they both did a really good job of taking care of the ball and getting some insane touches. It makes Maggie and my jobs really easy.”

Maggie, what were some of the positives that you noticed during non-conference play as a whole?

Mendelson: “I just think it’s been a really cool opportunity to see different types of teams and different types of games. We’ve played four sets, five sets, three sets, so I think we’re prepared, from that angle, going into the Big Ten conference [schedule], but I’m excited to practice these next two days and get Purdue.”

For coach, Grimes obviously had an amazing game. She finished with 27 digs, but also got things done with passing. She had six assists and also had a service ace [and a kill]. How did her all-around game impact this win?

KSC: “I thought Gill played a great game. I think she’s been aggressive on the serving line. I think she’s always been a really good passer, and she’s getting better. I think, defensively, she was where she should be, made great plays, and kept the ball alive so that we could score.”

Jess, what are some things you want to see the team clean up before Big Ten play?

Mruzik: “I think just our consistency. We want to get back to just playing a lot of good volleyball. You can beat a lot of really good teams just being good. I think, right now, we have really high highs, and sometimes we have really low lows, so we want to meet in the middle. If we do that throughout Big Ten play, I think we’ll be in a pretty good spot.”

Coach, were you impressed with your team’s bounce-back [this weekend] after Wednesday’s [loss to Pitt]? Does anything change now as you get ready to head into another tough environment against Purdue on Wednesday?

KSC: “Like I always say, we were happy to be home this weekend. It’s nice to grab two wins at home. Now, it resets. I told them, ‘We have 10 home matches and 10 away.’ It has to be one match at a time now. We’ll take what we learned from preseason and move forward to getting better these next couple days before we have to go play at Purdue.”

Maggie, what does it mean to you to be a role model for young fans?

Mendelson: “I think it’s just a really awesome thing, because I remember watching college girls while I was growing up, and just being able to see somebody play like that is really awesome. I just really hope to inspire these young girls. I used to play basketball, too. Playing both sports growing up, [I want to] inspire more people to play multiple sports, like coach [Katie] did, too.”