No. 15 Penn State women’s volleyball lost to No. 10 Minnesota 3-1 (25-27, 21-25, 25-23, 18-25) Friday night in front of a crowd of 2,717 at Rec Hall.
Stephanie Samedy led the Golden Gophers with a match-high 26 kills and 13 digs, while Jenna Hampton and Kaitlyn Hord surpassed 1,000 digs and 500 blocks, respectively. Hampton had 20 digs and Hord had 12 kills and 11 blocks.
Jenna Wenaas and Airi Miyabe helped Minnesota avenge a straight-sets loss to the Nittany Lions earlier this season on October 22 in Minneapolis with 12 kills apiece. Erika Pritchard and Jonni Parker had 10 kills each, but both hit around .100 and they combined for 12 attack errors.
Both setters, Melani Shaffmaster (49 assists, 15 digs) and Gabby Blossom (41 assists, 10 digs), finished with double-doubles Friday night, but Shaffmaster guided her team to a slightly better hitting percentage. Shaffmaster and Parker were club teammates for Munciana prior to college. Full stats can be found here.
The Nittany Lions (19-10, 12-7 Big Ten) return to Rec Hall Saturday at 7 p.m. when they host Iowa on senior night. The program will honor its nine seniors following the match in order to have enough time to properly recognize them.
Russ Rose’s opening statement:
“I think you have to give credit to Minnesota that they were able to sustain and do what they wanted to do better than we were able to do what we would have liked to do. We had an opportunity in the first game and missed our serve on game point. We were in the game in the second game and had opportunities in the second game. I just think it’s a group that spends more time talking about what they need to do than doing what they need to do. If you’re at 21-21, we could have won the match, and we’re finding ways not to win the match. You can tell some of the girls are sick. Some of them are playing with less than the sort of effort that previous players at this university have played with.”
For the players, what kind of challenges did Stephanie Samedy pose for you tonight?
Hampton: “I think Stephanie is just all-around a great player and she’s going to make her plays. I think we can’t let one player beat us, and I think that’s kind of what happened tonight. We made little errors that cost us at the end of the game, so I think we really need to dial in on that one player.”
What’s your message to the team heading into tomorrow?
Hampton: “It’s our last home game of the season, so we’ve got to bring it and come out a lot stronger than we did today, because Iowa is still a good team. Yeah, we’ve got to finish with a good ending.”
Hord: “We’ve got a lot to play for tomorrow, so come out with a totally new outlook on how to run things and just have way more energy and finish.”
Coach, what are some things you would like to see the team improve on?
“I thought Jenna and Anje [Starck] passed really well. I thought Kait hit well. Erika can score, but it’s either a hit or miss. She needs to be a little more error conscious, but, you know, it’s been a long season. It’s been like one full year of battling some of the same conversations and looks on people’s faces. I let them talk after the match. It was really more about them having to talk. We’ll see what sort of effort they make available tomorrow. I think every match has value. This one has a different value, because you want to finish strong if you’re going to have an opportunity to be in the tournament and not be hoping that you get in based on other people’s misfortune. You’ve got to battle and compete to try and earn things in life.”