Penn State Volleyball Loses To Wisconsin 3-2

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

No. 14 Penn State women’s volleyball lost to No. 3 Wisconsin 3-2 (19-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-18, 12-15) in the program’s third annual Silent Set match at Rec Hall Saturday night.

Box Score

An announced crowd of 4,301 saw the Nittany Lions (22-7, 11-7 Big Ten) battle back and forth with the conference-leading Badgers (23-3, 17-1 Big Ten), who won their 16th straight match. Penn State still leads the all-time series against Wisconsin 49-12.

During the booster club social after the match, Jonni Parker announced that they raised around $7,000 for her foundation Chasing Greatness Saturday night.

Down 2 sets to 1, Penn State took it to the Badgers in the fourth set 25-18, with Kash Williams closing out the set in dramatic fashion with an ace:

In the fifth set, Penn State battled back from a 7-3 deficit to take the lead 10-8 on this stellar play by Alexa Markley and Leisa Elisaia:

But the Badgers counterpunched, taking seven of the last nine points, to win the decisive fifth set 15-12.

Five Nittany Lions finished with double-digit kills, as setter Leisa Elisaia dished out a season-high 59 assists and added 10 digs for her 10th double-double of the year. Kash Williams led Penn State with a match-high 18 kills, but struggled with attack errors in the loss.

Allie Holland (15 kills), Zoe Weatherington (14), Alexa Markley (11), and Katie Clark (10) joined Williams in double figures, while Maddy Bilinovic and Cassie Kuerschen combined for 23 digs to pace Penn State’s defense, which finished with 55 digs to Wisconsin’s 46. The Badgers outblocked Penn State 15-6 and had a 6-5 advantage in aces.

Wisconsin hit .307 to Penn State’s .258, but both teams sided out around 61 percent. It was a much better showing for the Nittany Lions than their previous meeting with the Badgers earlier this season, a sweep on September 30 in Madison.

The Nittany Lions will regroup in practice before traveling to Evanston, Illinois, for their final road match of the regular season against Northwestern (17-12, 6-11 Big Ten) Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET at Welsh-Ryan Arena. It will be the only meeting between these two teams this season. The Wildcats host Michigan State Sunday afternoon.

Katie Schumacher-Cawley’s opening statement:

“It was a great match. I thought it was a phenomenal crowd tonight. I thought our team did some good things after the first set. Wisconsin is a great team. I’m proud of how we competed after set one. We have two matches left. We’ll practice Monday-Tuesday, then we’ll head to Northwestern, and be back home Friday for our final home match [of the regular season]. We have some work to take care of. I know the girls are bummed about the loss, but they know they have to get back to work on Monday.”

What were some of the positives you saw from your team?

“I thought we started serving more aggressively. I thought we were taking some big swings and had some courage at the net. I thought everyone stepped up and started doing their job. We were able to score some points.”

How do you think last night’s win against Minnesota carried the momentum and helped you guys push Wisconsin tonight?

“Any win in this conference is a great win. I thought last night the team competed really hard and we stuck to the game plan. I know they were feeling good about it today. When you get off to a slow start like that [against Wisconsin], it’s tough sometimes to regather, but like I said, I was proud of the way that they came back and did some things and found ways to score. We need to use this going into next Wednesday.”

Leisa spread the ball around a lot. Five players had double-digit kills. How important was she tonight?

“I think Leisa’s been doing a great job. She’s gotten better every time she steps on the floor. I think she’s working really hard with the attackers. Again, I think our passers did a good job, minus that last set. I thought that was pretty tough. I think [Izzy] Ashburn is one of the best servers. She did a nice job.”

What kind of challenges did Devyn Robinson present for you guys?

“She’s a great player. She can go up and she can do a lot of special things. We didn’t do a whole lot to make some changes on her. She’s a special player and she finds ways to score.”

Allie Holland was pretty efficient tonight. What impressed you about her performance?

“I think Allie’s taking some big swings. I thought, earlier in the season, she was kind of tipping and roll-shotting a lot. I think she’s gotten way more aggressive and is finding ways to score. I think she can see that she’s getting more points by being aggressive like that.”

What are your thoughts on the support of the crowd and the Silent Set?

“It was so wonderful to have Jonni [Parker] and her family back here and to honor her with Chasing Greatness. We’re lucky to have the fanbase that we have. I’m just happy we were able to support Jonni.”