No. 4 seed Penn State women’s volleyball rallied from a 2-0 deficit to force five sets in Madison, Wisconsin, but the Nittany Lions lost to the No. 1 seed Badgers 3-2 (21-25, 19-25, 25-23, 25-20, 8-15) Thursday night in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA tournament.
Wisconsin out-blocked Penn State 23-9, which ultimately proved to be the deciding factor in the third matchup of the season between these two teams. Caroline Crawford had 12 total blocks for Wisconsin (28-3, 19-1 Big Ten), while Sarah Franklin and Anna Smrek led the Badgers with 13 kills apiece.
The defending champs are on to the next round! 📈
Watch the highlights from (1) @BadgerVB’s five-set win over (4) Penn State.#NCAAWVB pic.twitter.com/5DUsVTcIBk
— NCAA Women's Volleyball (@NCAAVolleyball) December 9, 2022
Penn State hit .056 to Wisconsin’s .182 Thursday, but the Nittany Lions (26-8, 13-7 Big Ten) were far better than the Badgers from the service line, tallying 10 aces to Wisconsin’s four. Both teams had eight service errors. Katie Clark was the most efficient Nittany Lion with 13 kills and a .296 hitting percentage. Kash Williams (14 kills) and Zoe Weatherington (11 kills) joined Clark in double figures, but struggled with attack errors against the Badgers.
Seleisa Elisaia put together an impressive showing in her final collegiate contest, recording a match-high 48 assists, seven digs, four aces, two kills, and a block. Maddy Bilinovic paced Penn State’s defense with 17 digs — one less than Wisconsin libero Gülce Güçtekin. Cassie Kuerschen had 10 digs for the Nittany Lions, while Gillian Grimes added nine and Anjelina Starck contributed eight.
Allie Holland and Alexa Markley combined for 14 kills to round out the scoring for Penn State, which advanced to its 34th regional semifinals out of the 42 straight NCAA tournaments the Nittany Lions have played in. Penn State showed plenty of determination in clawing back from an early deficit, and largely exceeded expectations in Katie Schumacher-Cawley’s first season as head coach.
Although Elisaia, Williams, Clark, and Anastasiya Kudryashova participated in Penn State’s senior night festivities and will not be back next season, Weatherington confirmed during her Tuesday press conference that she will return to the Nittany Lions for her fifth and final campaign in 2023. Perhaps Penn State will also add a few transfers to fill out the roster in the coming weeks.
Schumacher-Cawley discussed Penn State’s narrow loss to the Badgers in her post-match press conference Thursday night. Clark, Elisaia, and Williams joined her at the podium, but unfortunately weren’t asked any questions in a relatively brief session. The full transcript of questions and answers can be found below.
Schumacher-Cawley’s opening statement:
“It was a hell of a match. I’m proud of my team. It’s a great Wisconsin team, and they’re going to do some special things these next couple matches. I’m proud of the way we competed and that we represented Penn State. I wish these three (Clark, Elisaia, and Williams) all the best. They’re seniors. We’re lucky we had them this season. I wish Wisconsin the best. What a great atmosphere this was. Cheers to all you Wisconsin people. This is a great atmosphere to play in. It was a lot of fun.”
Coach, Wisconsin’s won 21 matches in a row, but you’ve given them two really good fights during that stretch. Does that kind of show just how tightly matched these two teams are?
“Yeah, you have windows of time to find some ways to score. We had some opportunities, but I thought they were serving really aggressively there at the end, and a couple errors by us. It’s a great team. It’s a great conference that we play in. These are the matches that you live for.”
Coach, your team had great serving tonight, but there were also a lot of hitting errors. What do you attribute those to?
“I think we had a lot of hitting errors, but they also had 23 blocks. They’re a great defensive blocking team. We told our players to stay aggressive. We swing away. That’s how we find ways to score points, but like I said, I’m proud of the way our kids played and took some big swings. Wisconsin played a great match.”
Coach, how would you describe your team’s fight after coming back from down 2-0?
“I think we settled down and were serving a lot tougher. I think this has been this team all year. We don’t give up. We don’t quit. We find ways to earn points. I thought we stayed relaxed, even down 0-2, and battled back in the third and fourth set.”