1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Total
Purdue	17	25	21	23	1
Penn St.	25	18	25	25	3

Penn State started strong in the first set as they flaunted great serving against Purdue. The blocks were also giving Purdue a tough time, causing 11 hitting errors for the Boilermakers in the first set. The Nittany Lions were able to contain the Boilermakers to a -0.026 hitting percentage. Emmi Sellman and Kennedy Martin had strong starts, leading the team with 3 kills each. Penn State won the first comfortably, 25-17.

The second set started close. It was up to 6-6 when Gabrielle Nichols strung 2 aces back to back. The Nittany Lions looked to take this lead to the end behind a strong offensive performance from Martin, who had 6 kills (0.545 hitting percentage); however, Purdue, behind the strong performances of Grace Heaney (13 points in the match) and Addy Tindall (16.5 points), pulled back to tie with the Nittany Lions 16-16. Passing troubles and offensive miscues lost the Nittany Lions the momentum as they lost 9 of the last 11 points in the set and allowed Purdue to take the second 18-25.

The third set looked to be another tussle against the Boilermakers. The set had 6 lead changes and 12 ties. Late in the set, Purdue looked to have wrestled the momentum from Penn State as they led 14-17. But the Nittany Lions took 11 of the last 15 points to get away with the 3rd set. Martin again had 6 kills to lead the team, and a strong blocking performance by Kendall Northern (4 blocks) allowed the Nittany Lions to get the momentum back in the 3rd.

The fourth set was also tight, with 14 ties and 6 lead changes. The Nittany Lions were ahead for half of the set until 16-16, when the Boilermakers made a surge to get to 20 first at 20-17. But Kennedy Martin and Emmi Sellman were not to be denied as they combined for 14 kills in the last set. Gabrielle Nichols also had 3 of her 4 blocks in the last set. Crucial back-to-back kills by Alexis Stucky and Kennedy Martin gave the set and match to Penn State, 25-23.

Kennedy Martin led all players with 27 points from 24 kills and 6 blocks. This is Martin’s 5th 20-point match in the last 6 matches for the Nittany Lions. Martin now averages 5.11 kills/set (4.58 kps overall) and 5.92 points/set (5.32 pps overall) in the Big Ten season. Emmi Sellman was second on the team in points with a season-high 14.5. She had a season-high 12 kills and 4 blocks. Her remarkable improvement in hitting out-of-system balls is to be noted as she bailed the Nittany Lions out of trouble a handful of times. Kendall Northern also had a strong, balanced performance with 10.5 points from 6 kills and a career-high 7 blocks. Alexis Stucky led the team in assists with 40 and pitched in 5 kills (a team-high 0.400 hitting percentage) and 3 blocks. Lastly, Jocelyn Nathan and Martin tied for a team-high 9 digs.

The Nittany Lions had the edge in the scoring skills: kills (57-54) and aces (5-2), and tied for blocks (12-12). Not shown on the stats sheet, however, is the amount of service pressure the Nittany Lions gave the Boilermakers. Purdue had the edge defensively as they had a large lead in digs in the match (48-66).

With their 5th consecutive win, Penn State goes up to 17-5 in the season and 9-3 in the conference. The Nittany Lions currently sit at solo 4th in the B1G, which is important for seeding purposes in the B1G conference tournament at the end of November. Additionally, the Nittany Lions sit at 10th in the RPI and gained a small lead over the #11 RPI team, Arizona State. The Nittany Lions will play the next 4 matches away. Next week, they will have back-to-back ranked matches against #21 Minnesota and #8 Wisconsin.

Post-Match Press Conference

After the match, Coach Katie, Kennedy Martin and Jocelyn Nathan answered questions from the media.  Below is a transcript of the questions and answers, lightly edited for length and clarity.

Opening Statement from Coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley

I’m really proud of this group for the way they competed today. It was a great team effort. I thought everyone contributed, and I thought these two made a hell of a match. Excited that we have a lot more season left.

Question: Long road trip coming up. What does a win like this mean for this team?

Coach Katie: I think I say in every press conference, it’s hard to win, and this conference is unforgiving. I’m just glad we’re getting better, we’re competing, and everyone’s contributing to this team’s success. So it’s nice to see, and we have more time to get better.

Question: Coach, every set was close today. It felt like every single point was magnified. Did it feel like that to you on the court, and how were you able to make substitutions in key moments?

Coach Katie: I thought our subs did a great job. Juice is in and out all the time and finding ways to help us. In matches like that, and in this conference, it is point for point. It was nice to see us pull away a little bit and have some back-to-back plays that pushed us ahead. Purdue’s a great team, and they have a lot of season left as well. I’m proud of the way that we dug in and found ways to score.

Question: Kennedy, congrats on the win. 24 kills today. What was working for you?

Kennedy Martin: It was kind of a dogfight. It didn’t really feel like 24 kills, but I thought that Stucky gave me really good looks in transition. I think our passing and our middles’ physicality is something that other teams really have to focus and key in on when we’re on top of our passing. So shout out to the passers, Stucky and the middles.

Question: What’s it like working with Alexis (Stucky) again after you two weren’t together last year? Now you’re back reunited. It seems like the connection’s just growing every single game. What’s it been like working with her again?

Kennedy Martin: It’s been awesome to work with her again. I think we both know each other really well just because we’re roommates, and we’ve been together since I was 17. I don’t know how old she was, but I think we’re able to work through the ugly pretty well because of that. We both know the goal is to win, and we’re all over it, and we see the bigger picture pretty well.

Question: Jocelyn, you’ve been here all four years in this new era. What does it mean to stay with the same team?

Jocelyn Nathan: It’s unfortunate that it’s pretty rare nowadays, but I think for me it makes it that much more special to be able to say that I’m a Penn Stater for life. I think anybody that ends up here, like Ken (Kennedy Martin), will still be a Penn Stater for life. She’s been here for two years, but it means the world to me. The people that came before me that were four years – Coach Katie, Meg (Megan Hodge), Quinn (Menger) and Gill (Grimes), all of them – they’re people that I always really looked up to, and they stuck it out throughout this program. Every year looks so different, but it’s always been rewarding in some way, shape or form. So I’m happy I stuck through.

Question: Coach, how would you describe the impact of this year’s senior class and just their personalities?

Coach Katie: We have some wild personalities on this team, and I love all of them. I’m really proud of these seniors for who they are and what they represent.

Question: You guys hit your best percentage in that fourth set. I think it was .340. What was working a bit better for you guys in that set?

Coach Katie: I thought Stucky was moving the ball around well, and I thought we were passing much better. We were taking big swings and putting the ball on the floor. So I think we were just way more aggressive and focused.

Question: For the players, what was Senior Day like for you guys?

Kennedy Martin: It was really special. Our team has been awesome today. They decorated the locker room, got photos, reached out to old friends. I don’t even know how they got into contact with some of those people. They made a little 20-minute video montage for all of us. It’s been really special, and this place is special, so I’m really grateful to be here.

Jocelyn Nathan: I would just second that. It’s different being on the other end of it. I’ve always kind of been the one setting up all the senior stuff, so I know they really wanted to go all out for us just because of that. It was really special. They’re just such a good group of girls, so it was going to be special regardless of anything that they put on.

Box Score