With a combined 52 hitting errors (Penn State 24, Purdue 28), there were times when both teams seemed to be driving the wrong way

 

There’s No Such Thing as a B1G Easy

This one wasn’t pretty.  For either team.  Sure, Penn State (12-2, 3-1 B1G) won the match 3-2 (16-25, 25-21, 25-16, 22-25, 15-8), so if you’re a Penn State fan, there’s that.  And all B1G road matches are tough (see below).

Repeat after us: there’s no such thing as a B1G Easy. There’s no such thing as a B1G Easy. There’s no such thing as a B1G Easy.

Still, there were times when it seemed that neither team was quite focused on the task at hand.  Driving the wrong way, as it were (see above).  And the fact is, Purdue gave Penn State all it could handle.  (Purdue’s press release said the Boilermakers gave Penn State “nearly” all it could handle. We think they were too kind.)

Statistically, Penn State was led by 5-11 Jr. setter Micha Hancock (45 assists, 13 digs and two service aces with only one service error), 6-4 Sr. RS/Opp Ariel Scott (15 kills, six blocks), 6-1 Sr. OH Deja McClendon (10 kills, 15 digs, two blocks), 6-6 Sr. MH Katie Slay (11 kills, eight blocks), and 5-6 Jr. L Dominique Gonzalez (14 digs).

Purdue’s 6-0 So. OH  Sam Epenesa recorded a match-high 16 kills, with five other Boilermaker’s totaling six or more kills: 6-1 Jr. MB KiKi Jones (9 kills, four blocks), 6-2 RS Sr. OH Catherine Rebarchak (8 kills, four blocks), 6-1 Jr. S/OH Val Nichol (7 kills, nine digs), 6-4 So. OH Annie Drews (6 kills, four blocks) and 6-1 RS Fr. MB Faye Adelaja (6 kills and 7 blocks).  5-6 Sr.  Carly Cramer totaled a match-high 16 digs.  6-1 Sr. OH/DS Hilliary Fox had 13 digs and 5-8 So. DS Amanda Neill added nine.

Match Highlights and Post-Match Interviews

Here are highlights of the match (courtesy of PurdueSports.com):

 

Purdue head coach Dave Shondell on loss to Penn State State (courtesy of PurdueSports.com):

Purdue’s 6-0 So. OH Sam Epenesa’s thoughts on the match (courtesy of PurdueSports.com):

Match Stats