Penn State Volleyball Sweeps James Madison Behind Mruzik, Hannah

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

No. 3 Penn State women’s volleyball got back in the win column Friday night at Rec Hall after sweeping James Madison, as Jess Mruzik and Camryn Hannah led the Nittany Lions (9-1) with a match-high 13 kills apiece.

Following a straight-sets loss to No. 1 Pitt Wednesday in Oakland, Penn State performed much better offensively against the Dukes than it did in a rout versus the Panthers. Izzy Starck (35 assists, five digs, four kills, two blocks) guided the Nittany Lions to a .324 hitting percentage, including .484 in the second set, before they cooled down a bit in the third set by hitting .194 to close things out.

Box Score

James Madison entered the week as the fourth-best team in Division I volleyball in blocks per set, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Dukes gave Penn State somewhat of a battle at the net. The Nittany Lions out-blocked JMU 9-8 and held the Dukes to a .139 hitting percentage, but Penn State only managed three aces to JMU’s six.

Gill Grimes, who had a match-high 13 digs and five assists, led the Nittany Lions with two aces in the win, while Mruzik, who was recently named among 36 athletes selected to the AVCA Division I Player of the Year watch list, tallied the other ace. Mruzik also had seven digs, four blocks, and an assist. Anjelina Starck and Ava Falduto had seven and four digs, respectively.

Penn State’s coaching staff elected to switch up the starting lineup a bit compared to previous matches, as Hannah and Falduto replaced Anjelina Starck and Caroline Jurevicius in the initial lineup, but the substitution patterns remained fairly consistent. Jurevicius had eight kills (.286), three digs, and three blocks to bounce back from a difficult outing against Pitt. Quinn Menger (two digs) and Joce Nathan also came off the bench.

Penn State’s middle blockers, Taylor Trammell and Maggie Mendelson, combined for nine kills, while Mendelson, though she didn’t have the most efficient night offensively, paced the Nittany Lions with five blocks. We even saw Mendelson try out a jump serve at one point, but it hit the net for a service error. It will be interesting to see if she or Jurevicius, who has a jump serve of her own, implement that moving forward.

The Nittany Lions will wrap up the Penn State Classic Sunday at 2 p.m. when they host Yale, a team they beat in the first round of the 2023 NCAA tournament in Lawrence, Kansas. Yale head coach Erin Appleman was an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions while Katie Schumacher-Cawley was a player. Schumacher-Cawley, Hannah, and Grimes answered questions after Penn State’s win over JMU. The full transcript of questions and answers can be found below.

Opening statement:

KSC: “Thanks for coming. I know it was a little bit earlier for everyone, but we appreciate it. It was nice to see the team bounce back after Wednesday. It was a quick turnaround, but I thought we did some good things. I thought we stayed focused and found a way to score points. I think these two played exceptionally, and I know they will continue to do that.”

Coach, Izzy had 35 assists as well as [four kills]. How important is it for the team to have a player like that?

KSC: “I think she has that many assists because I thought our passing was a little shaky to start off with, but got better. Gill handles a lot of that, and on defense. I think Izzy’s a great player, a great setter. I think she’s getting better every set she plays in. It’s nice to see her attack the ball a little bit and find other ways to score. I’m happy for her and the progress that she’s making.”

For the players, what are some of the things you think you guys did well tonight to help bounce back from Wednesday?

Grimes: “I thought our block was a really good setup compared to what we were seeing on Wednesday. I thought we were digging more balls so we could run hitters like Cam and Izzy could do her thing, too.”

Hannah: “I think, defensively, we played really well. I’ll bounce off of that. I think on Wednesday, it was a struggle for us to kind of get into our groove. I think tonight, we started off a little bit slow, but we came together, we talked about it as a team, and we started to make more digs, which contributed to Izzy’s assists, and we got more kills. It was all a group effort.”

Cam, you had a great game tonight with 13 kills against one of the better blocking teams. James Madison is fourth in the nation in blocks per set. How did it feel to break through a defense that was that productive?

Hannah: “I think, for me, it’s more of just a ‘Keep swinging’ mentality. You’re going to get blocked sometimes. That’s just the game of volleyball. Not getting in my head and knowing that, if I get blocked, my teammates are going to be there to cover me, so I can keep swinging.”

What were some things that were going well in that second set? You guys hit almost .500.

KSC: “I thought we passed much better and our attackers were one-on-one. I thought we were taking some big swings and finding a way to score, whether it was first-ball or transition.”