Penn State Volleyball Sweeps Purdue In Big Ten Opener

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

No. 4 Penn State women’s volleyball swept No. 10 Purdue Wednesday night at Holloway Gymnasium to begin Big Ten play with a decisive win over the Boilermakers, who won both matches in this series last season.

Neither team had swept in the previous 10 meetings between Penn State and Purdue prior to Wednesday’s matchup. The Nittany Lions (11-1, 1-0 Big Ten) last swept Purdue on Nov. 19, 2016 at Rec Hall, showing how competitive this series has been in recent years despite Penn State’s 61-11 all-time lead.

Box Score

“It was definitely something we talked about going in here,” Mruzik said of last year’s losses to Purdue during her post-match interview on Big Ten Network. “We walked out of this gym last year with a ton of regrets. We wanted to open up Big Ten play with no regrets, and no better place to do it. It’s such a cool environment and atmosphere. Honestly, we embrace playing on the road. It’s hard to win, and it’s even harder to win [on the road]. We felt like we left it all out there tonight.”

Mruzik finished with 13 kills, nine digs, three blocks, and two assists against the Boilermakers on what was another balanced night for Penn State’s offense. Mruzik took 30 swings, while Camryn Hannah took 28. Taylor Trammell, Maggie Mendelson, and Caroline Jurevicius all had six kills.

Hannah had a match-high 14 kills and hit .393 against the Boilermakers, who fell to 9-3 and 0-1 in Big Ten play on the season. Purdue’s three losses have all come against top-10 teams. Chloe Chicoine and Eva Hudson had 10 kills apiece but were held to fairly low hitting percentages of .172 and .200, respectively. Penn State out-blocked Purdue 6-2.

Izzy Starck had a double-double in the win, dishing out a match-high 38 assists and adding 13 digs in her first Big Ten contest. Starck guided Penn State’s offense to a ridiculous .643 hitting percentage, 19 kills, and only one attack error in the first set, a 25-14 beatdown. The Nittany Lions hit in the mid-.200s in the second and third sets, but still managed an impressive .369 clip for the match against one of the better blocking teams in the country.

Former Ohio State and Penn State setter Mac Podraza made her color commentary debut on Big Ten Network alongside play-by-play analyst Connor Onion and was lauded afterward for her impressive performance. Podraza, who now plays for the Omaha Supernovas of the Pro Volleyball Federation, has an extensive knowledge of the game and did a nice job breaking things down for the viewers at home.

Hannah, Ava Falduto (eight digs, one assist), and Quinn Menger (two digs) were Penn State’s lone substitutes Wednesday night, which has pretty consistently been the case in the highly competitive matches Penn State has played so far this season. Anjelina Starck had five digs, three assists, and a kill, while libero Gill Grimes added eight digs, three assists, and one of Penn State’s two aces. Izzy Starck had the other. Purdue managed only one ace.

“I’m proud of the way the girls played,” Katie Schumacher-Cawley said on the broadcast afterward. “I thought everyone contributed. We worked hard and I thought we earned points. I think that’s a great Purdue team. They’re going to get some wins. It’s nice to steal one on the road.”

The Nittany Lions will return to Rec Hall Sunday at 2 p.m. when they host Michigan State (7-4) in their Alzheimer’s awareness match. Fans are encouraged to wear purple to show their support for those battling the disease. Since we did not make the trip to West Lafayette, there are unfortunately no post-match quotes from Schumacher-Cawley or the players other than what we could aggregate from social media clips. Highlights can be found below.