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Penn State (28-3, 16-2 in the B1G) visits Northwestern (16-13, 6-12 in the B1G) at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Wednesday night for the Wildcat’s Senior Night, with pre-match tributes to five Northwestern seniors: 6-0 MB Katie Dutchman, 5-10 OH Yewande Akanbi, 6-2 MB Savannah Paffen, 6-3 MB Maggie Burnham and 5-11 OH Monica McGreal. The match will be streamed live on BTN Plus (a paid subscription — click on the icon above for more info).
It’s been an up-and-down season for the Wildcats, with ups including the November 5th home win over then-AVCA #9 Illinois in five sets (25-20, 25-22, 16-25, 15-25, 15-11), and the October 5th sweep of then-AVCA #18 Minnesota (26-24, 29-27, 25-20) in Evanston. The downs — well, with 12 losses in the B1G, there are several from which to choose. But in its last match, on November 22nd, Northwestern was very effective, defeating Iowa 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 25-21), hitting .371 as a team while holding the Hawkeyes to a .120 team attack %.
The Wildcats have been led by Dutchman, who ranks 13th in the B1G (B1G matches only) with a .300 attack %, 6-1 Fr. OH Symone Abbott, who ranks 12th in the B1G in kills (B1G matches only), 5-7 RS Jr. libero Caroline Niedospial, who leads the B1G (B1G matches only) with 5.06 digs/set (She isn’t just a flash-in-the-pancake, either, as last season she averaged 4.46 digs/set in 124 sets), and 6-0 Fr. setter Taylor Tashima, who leads all B1G freshmen with 12 double-doubles.
Here are some video clips from the Iowa match, courtesy of nusports.com:
In it’s last match, Penn State defeated Maryland in straight sets (15-25, 18-25, 14-25) in front of 4,522 fans at Maryland’s XFINITY Center. The Nittany Lions were led by 6-4 RS Sr. Opp/RS Aiyana Whitney (11 kills, .350 attack %), 6-1 Fr. OH Ali Frantti (9 kills, .600 attack % — zero errors), 6-2 Jr. OH Megan Courtney (6 kills, .750 attack % with zero errors and a team-best 9 digs), and 6-3 Fr. MH Haleigh Washington (6 kills, .667 attack % — also no errors).
5-11 Sr. setter Micha Hancock guided Penn State to a .421 team attack % (compared to .123 attack % for the Terps), and added eight service aces, to reach the century mark for the season. 6-2 Sr. MH Nia Grant registered 4 blocks, as did Whitney, while 5-6 Sr. libero Dominique Gonzalez totaled 8 digs.
Stat Joust
B1G Team Stats (B1G Matches Only)
What jumps out to us:
- Penn State continues to dominate the attack % stats — both Team % (.334) and Opponent % (.151) — a Net Attack % of .183 (Wisconsin’s is .118)
- The Nittany Lions now rank #3 in the B1G in blocking
- Micha Hancock makes team service ace stats look really, really good
B1G Individual Stats (B1G Matches Only)
What jumps out to us:
- When you have a Team Attack % of .334, you end up with four of the top 14 hitters in the conference (or is it the other way around?)
- When you have Micha Hancock on your team, it’s easier to have four of the top 14 hitters in the conference
- Ali Frantti is having a monster freshman season
- So is Haleigh Washington
- Katie Dutchman is a very good player
- So is Symone Abbott.
- So is Caroline Niedospial
Penn State Stats – 11-22-14
Attack Leaders: 11-22-14
Setting Leaders: 11-22-14
Serving Leaders: 11-22-14
Rcpt/Dig Leaders: 11-22-14
Blocking/Points Leaders: 11-22-14
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Photo Credits
- Welsh-Ryan Arena: Courtesy of www.nusports.com.
- Three-Headed Monster. Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2009.39.1_PS1.jpg. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
