It was no arcade game but in Saturday night's volleyball match, Minnesota played its own version of Gopher Bash.

Using powerful hitting and an overbearing block, Minnesota bullied the Nittany Lions for three games. The Lions offense was out of sync all night, due largely in part to their two top hitters being shut down.

Senior Cara Smith, who leads the team hitting .421 on the season, hit -.077 for the night with more errors than kills. Smith's counterpart Erin Iceman hit just .094.

"We usually get a little production from Ice and Smitty and [Minnesota] neutralized them this evening," Penn State women's volleyball coach Russ Rose said. "When that happens we don't have enough options to hit ourselves out of the match."

As much as outside hitter Ashley Pederson, who registered 18 kills, tried to bail her teammates out, the Gopher block dominated the tempo.

Penn State found itself going up against a double block on most shots. Minnesota ended up with 16 blocks on the night and seemed ready for everything that sophomore Sam Tortorello set up for the outside hitters.

"They definitely had a big block," Tortorello said. "They really didn't do anything special. They just knew where I was going. It was hard finding an open hole for the hitters."

Penn State hit a horrid .106 for the match. After hitting .213 in the first game, it only got worse as Minnesota gained confidence.

While the Lions hit just .020 in the second game with 10 kills and nine errors, Minnesota did what they pleased. Gopher senior Carrie Busse and junior Erin Martin had 15 kills each.

Penn State's block could hardly come close to Minnesota's, as they blocked only five shots in the match.

"I think it was really just one of those situations where you're not playing real well and the other team is in the other team is in the right place at the right time," Rose said. "[Minnesota's] outside hitters had a field day."

Minnesota hit .288 for the match.

And no matter how much the Lions knew what was coming, they just couldn't stop it.

"We knew they were going to be a physical team that can jump well and hit over us if they wanted to," Smith said. "That was really frustrating. You're up as high as you can get and can't get any higher and they're hitting over you."

When Ohio State comes to the valley tomorrow night, the Lions can expect another physical team. Rose considers Ohio State to be the hardest playing team in the conference.

If Penn State wants a change in results, its going to have to play more physically and hit better. Otherwise Ohio State will just follow Minnesota's example.

According to Rose, Minnesota's example isn't too hard to crack.

"All they had to do was serve the ball on the court and wait for us to make errors," he said.