No. 20 Penn State women’s volleyball swept No. 3 Ohio State 3-0 (25-19, 27-25, 25-21) Sunday evening in front of a crowd of 3,807 at Rec Hall.

Senior outside hitter Adanna Rollins was outstanding in the win, tallying a season-high 14 kills on a .524 hitting percentage against the Buckeyes, who lost their second straight match after starting the season 10-0. Rollins also had six digs.

Jonni Parker, Erika Pritchard, and Kaitlyn Hord also turned in strong offensive performances for the Nittany Lions, who hit .380 against Ohio State, including a sizzling .517 clip in the first set. Gabby Blossom had a double-double with 36 assists and a match-high 13 digs.

Russ Rose called upon defensive specialists Cassie Kuerschen, Maddy Bilinovic, and Keatan Broughton as Penn State’s only substitutes of the match. Kuerschen and Parker each had one of Penn State’s two aces, but the team struggled a bit with nine service errors.  Senior libero Jenna Hampton had seven digs and seven assists.

Penn State improved to 51-18 in the all-time series against Ohio State, avenging a pair of losses to the Buckeyes during the abbreviated spring season. Penn State started incredibly strong and maintained its momentum in an emphatic win.

The Nittany Lions (9-3, 2-0 Big Ten) will next travel to College Park for an anticipated matchup against Maryland this Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Big Ten Network. The Terrapins (13-1) beat No. 2 Wisconsin in five sets last Friday before losing their first match of the season in straight sets on the road at No. 9 Minnesota.

Rose’s opening statement:

“Very appreciative of the people who came out today to support the team, because I know there are a lot of people who also go to the soccer game, so we’re appreciative of that. Having the band and the student section is always really helpful for us. Other than the seven missed serves in the third game, I thought we played well. I thought we were calm and we had good ball-handling and first-contacts. Gabby was moving the ball around. I thought it was a real good effort.”

For the players, not a single set loss in Rec Hall this season. What kind of advantage does playing in this environment give you?

Parker: “Playing at home is always going to give you that advantage — our crowd, our band, our fans, but no matter what, we have to do what we do and keep up with the Penn State tradition and make sure we keep working on the things that we can control in order to make our game better.”

Blossom: “We say it all the time, we have the best fans in the country. We love our fans. We love the energy they give us. The support we receive in Rec Hall is unbelievable, so it’s always fun to be at home. We play pretty well at home, but again, there’s always room for improvement.”

Erika, what were some things that were working particularly well tonight for the offense?

Pritchard: “I just wanted to trust my setter and know that she’s going to put the ball there and really have belief that my teammates are going to cover me. Stay aggressive, that’s my main thing that I focused on today.”

How would you describe Adanna’s performance tonight?

Pritchard: “Oh, unbelievable. She’s just a great teammate, a great player. She’s a really talented player. I just thought it was a really good team effort tonight.”

Rose: “And I think the most important statement is she’s a great teammate.”

Gabby, what are some things that the team needs to work on heading into the Maryland match?

Blossom: “Well, I think coach said it with the seven missed serves in one set. I obviously was one of them, so that’s not very good. I missed at a bad time. I think we’re always working on things. This season keeps going, you know? This is a great win and we’ll celebrate now, but then tomorrow we focus on Maryland. With the Big Ten, every team’s good. Winning is always nice, but then you move on pretty quick. There are a couple things to work on, but we’re happy right now. We’ll get in the gym tomorrow and work on those things.”

For coach, each set was pretty down to the wire. What can you say about your players’ ability to fight through adversity?

Rose: “Well, I mean, we had to come back a little bit in the second and third game. Obviously, the third game was more self-inflicted, but Ohio State was third in the country when they started the week, so the conference has great talent and great support and great coaching all across the board. You should always expect the games to be close. We practice hard and we do things where we recognize that it doesn’t make a difference who’s on the other side. At some point in time, it’s going to be close and there are going to be talented players making decisions on the other side of the net.”

For the players, how tough is it to play in the Big Ten?

Parker: “The Big Ten is one of the most competitive conferences, so no matter what, we talk about it in our gym, every game has value. Every game, you’ve got to go in with the same mentality as, ‘We’re going to win this game. We’ve got to make ourselves better and then get better the next week.’ The Big Ten is super competitive and that’s what makes it fun. Every night is going to be fun and you know it’s going to be a good night.”

Pritchard: “You just have to respect everybody and know that it’s going to be a dogfight every time.”

For Coach Rose, one thing that I noticed tonight was the eventual kills from quick-set attacks by Ohio State. What were the changes you made to help prevent that?

Rose: “Well, we missed seven serves. That was probably the only thing that prevented them from doing it more. I mean, both of those players are terrific offensive players. That’s a big part of their offense. [Rylee] Rader was an all-conference member, all-freshman team last year. The setter is terrific and competes really hard, as did her mother when she competed at the University of Minnesota, but I would be the only one who remembers that. I thought Kait [Hord] was in the right place a lot of times, and they’re just really good. People practice every day. People do what they do well and you hope when it comes down to critical moments that you can try and impact a little bit of what they’re doing. Missing serves is the wrong way to do it, but we were lucky to still find a way to win.”

You have won four matches in a row after losing those two matches to Oregon and Stanford. Do you think those two matches helped you in any way in the long run in terms of identifying areas of improvement as a team?

Parker: “No matter what, win or lose, you’re going to learn from that match — things you’ve got to work on, things you’ve got to change with your team, yourself, so I think that just really changed our mentality. We’ve got to work even harder in the gym day in and day out and hold each other accountable. The level we practice is the level we’re going to play and we’ve got to hold that standard. We’re going to make ourselves better in the long run.”

Blossom: “Yeah, I don’t think you ever want to lose and go, ‘Oh, we lost’ and learn from it. When you do lose, you have to get in the gym and fix the things you have to fix. I thought we’ve done a pretty good job of that. I think you can lose a couple matches and be down and not play great, but I thought we came out with a ton of energy our last few matches and played really hard. I think we’ve been practicing really hard. You never want to lose, but I guess you could say we learned from it, yeah.”