Salyer's play this weekend was a welcome sight for the Lions. She has been struggling to be the old Salyer since the first game because of a lower leg injury that has obviously hindered her speed and jumping ability during matches.
"I thought Cassy played very well. I thought both middles played well," Penn State coach Russ Rose said. "When our middles have the ability to hit well it's usually a reflection that we passed well and Sam [Tortorello] also distributed the ball well. When Kim hits .625, so much of that is because the ball is right in Sam's hands."
The Penn State middle has gone from thin to overloaded with the emergence of Walbridge against Minnesota and the play of Holm and Salyer this weekend. There would seem to be some friendly competition now, but that thought was blown off by Holm.
"I wouldn't call it a competition between Melissa and I," Holm said. "Yeah, we play a similar position but we encourage each other to play well."
Now with three viable options in the middle, Rose can toy around with his lineup. He said Saturday that with the way Holm has played he can now use Walbridge on the outside, possibly to help get senior outside hitter Ashley Pederson a breather or two.
Junior setter Sam Tortorello showed off the chemistry she has with Holm, which Rose has said he's seen in practice.
The former Big Ten freshman of the year has played very well this season especially when it comes to distributing the ball. This was on display again this weekend. In both matches, the Lions had three people with double-digit kills and no one had more than 13 kills in either match. Tortorello finished with 82 assist for the weekend and was right around her average of 13, which is third in the Big Ten.
"We were tough when we needed to be tough," Rose said. "[Saturday] we were playing on all cylinders and Indiana was struggling and that was the reason for the big point differential."
With the offense playing on all cylinders, the defense played like it has all season -- solid. Junior libero Kaleena Walters had her third 20-plus dig effort in a three-game match, when she recorded 21 against Purdue (10-6, 3-3) on Friday.
The block was on, too. Including the 18 blocks from the middle, the Lions recorded 21 blocks as a team. Also they held a struggling Indiana (6-11, 0-6) team to a .106 hitting percentage.
Penn State now comes home for a tough stretch of matches against Michigan (14-3, 4-2), Michigan State (6-8, 1-5), and (16-0, 6-0 )Ohio State.
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