Lady spikers sweep foes, stay perfect

By CARLA MOTKO
Collegian Staff Writer

Talk about a clean sweep.

The No. 2 Penn State women's volleyball team has made it past every team in the Big Ten without tarnishing its perfect 20-0 (10-0 Big Ten) record. The Lady Lions completed the sweep this weekend with two stylish 3-0 wins against Indiana (15-9,15-6, 15-6) Friday and Northwestern (15-11, 15-1, 15-6) Saturday.

The Lions were pleased with their success in the first cycle of the Big Ten, but they're wiping the slate clean for the second round.

"The second time is much harder because they know what you do," middle hitter Lauren Cacciamani said. "We know what they're going to do too, and even though you'd think it evens out, it doesn't exactly."

It took the Lions half of the first game to pick up on what Indiana was doing Friday. Cacciamani said the height advantage Penn State had over Indiana actually threw the Lions off at first. The Hoosiers started only two players taller than 6 feet.

Cacciamani said this caused Penn State to adjust its game when maybe it shouldn't have. The Lions tried to hit and ended up hitting directly into the Hoosiers' block. The Lion blockers tried to jump lower to accommodate the Hoosiers' hitters, but ended up deflecting kills out of bounds. The first game, which Penn State won 15-9, was more of a learning experience.

After Penn State realized it could run a more effective offense by playing its usual style, the second and third games came easier. Penn State's towering offense, led by Cacciamani, forced a multitude of errors and Penn State put both the second and third games away with 15-6 finals.

Cacciamani cranked out 13 kills on 29 attempts with only two errors for a .379 hitting percentage. On defense, she dug 11 attempted kills.

"I don't know if we ever really found our groove that night," Cacciamani said. "Indiana came out with a style of play that we weren't used to."

It took a little scare by Northwestern to rock Penn State into its groove Saturday. The Wildcats, who also start a small team, ran a fast-paced defense that kept the Lions guessing and allowed the Wildcats to battle back from a 7-2 deficit in the first game. When Northwestern stunned the Lions by going ahead 11-9, the powerful block of middle hitter Emily Stout brought the offense around and gave Penn State the lead again. Penn State closed out the game 15-11.

"Play was very frantic and it was easy to get sucked in," Cacciamani said. "Once we got into the second game, we were ready to go and we started playing our game."

Saying it was Penn State's game was an understatement. The Lions knocked the Wildcats down in dominant fashion with a 15-1 final in the second game. It was the solid play of outside hitter Carrie Schonveld that gave Penn State the 15-6 win to close it out.

Penn State fans have come to expect 3-0 wins from the Lions, and this weekend was no disappointment. And although the flaws don't really show in the score, Penn State makes mistakes in every game that it works on the next week in practice.

The Lions needed to catch more than their own mistakes during the repetitious 3-0 wins, they needed to pick up opponents' styles of play. Although the teams of the Big Ten will more than likely adjust their play in the second meetings throughout the remainder of the year, the basis of their play is already set.

"Now that we've played them all once, we're familiar with their style," Penn State opposite hitter Lindsay Anderson said. "I think it's good that we've beaten everybody, but they might come out with a different game plan next time and we'll have to adjust to that."