No. 20 Penn State women’s volleyball swept West Virginia 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-20) to wrap up non-conference play Friday night in the Mountaineer Invitational in Morgantown.
Jonni Parker helped the Nittany Lions hand the Mountaineers their first loss of the season with a match-high 11 kills. Anastasiya Kudryashova and Adanna Rollins also turned in impressive performances in Penn State’s seventh sweep of the season.
Kudryashova made her first appearance in the starting lineup this season for the Nittany Lions and finished with nine kills in the victory. Erika Pritchard, who started the previous nine matches at outside hitter, did not play in the match. Rollins had a match-high 10 digs, six kills, and two blocks.
Kaitlyn Hord and Allie Holland combined for nine kills and nine blocks against the Mountaineers, while Russ Rose relied on a handful of defensive specialists in key moments, including Cassie Kuerschen, Maddy Bilinovic, Quinn Menger, and Keatan Broughton, a West Virginia native who came off the bench and immediately recorded a dig in front of family and friends at WVU Coliseum.
Kuerschen had five digs, an assist, a rare defensive specialist kill, and the only service ace of the match in another strong showing for the freshman from Knoxville, Tennessee. Kuerschen made the biggest impact of Penn State’s six freshmen during the non-conference slate with 26 digs. Gabby Blossom, who had a match-high 29 assists, orchestrated a Penn State offense that hit .375 in the second set and .291 overall.
The Nittany Lions (7-3) will begin their Big Ten schedule with a road trip to Rutgers next Friday at 7 p.m. The Scarlet Knights (8-3) split a pair of matches at Clemson’s Big Orange Bash Friday in their final tune-up before conference play.