Volleyball: Women's
Penn State sweeps Long Island
The Penn State women's volleyball team overcame a slow start to sweep Long Island Friday night in Rec Hall.
"We started off and we were very tentative," Rose said. "We played a little better in the second game. The third game we played pretty well."
The team improved its record to 5-3 but coach Russ Rose wasn't entirely happy with the win after his team struggled against the 3-7 Blackbirds in a weak first set.
The Blackbirds pushed the Nittany Lions hard but Penn State was able to eventually prevail in the set, winning 29-27. The rest of the match went much smoother for the Lions as they cruised to 25-8 and 25-13 set victories.
Kristin Carpenter, the Lions' junior libero, passed poorly in the first set. Poorly enough for Rose to swap sophomore Ali Longo into the libero's jersey from the start of the second set.
Carpenter looked uncomfortable in that set and only had two digs. She saw extremely limited time in the match after that.
Longo, on the other hand, justified her coach's switch and played well in the dark blue jersey of the libero.
Other standouts for the Lions were sophomore Ariel Scott and sophomore Katie Slay, who both had strong offensive performances. Rose continued his policy of roster rotation, as 14 players saw time in the match.