No. 4 Lions take down No. 9 Stanford in home opener
Set up in the air and boom, point Penn State.
That was pretty much how the first set went for the No. 4 Nittany Lions as they came out from the opening whistle on fire and immediately jumped out to a 4-0 lead. The squad didn’t look back from there as it continued to dominate Stanford, building up a 16-8 lead. The Cardinal would only manage to get within six, before the Lions rolled off five straight points to take the opening set 25-13.
It seemed like this matchup of top 10 teams was going to be a blow out, but then the Cardinal showed the more than 5,000 fans in Rec Hall why they were the most elite program in NCAA history with six national titles. They stormed back to take the second set, despite an impressive rally from the Lions, who scored nine straight points at one time.
Being split at one set apiece, the Lions knew they had to take two out of the next three sets and that’s exactly what they did. They won a close third set 25-23 and after the Cardinal forced a fifth set, capitalized on Cardinal mistakes and won the fifth set 15-13, giving the Lions (4-0, 0-0 Big Ten) the win in their home opener.
“We hung in there with the help of a great crowd and a building where we need to have those big crowds and we need to have good energy to get things done,” head coach Russ Rose said. “I thought A[riel] Scott had an awful lot of swings and had a great night for us as far as generating kills .”
The junior outside hitter had a big night for the Lions and registered 26 kills, just one away from tying her career high from last season against Illinois. Her kills were a match-high and were one more than the top Cardinal hitters could post combined.
“They were playing really good defense and you just have to keep a level head and not get frustrated, and try and get a kill the next time,” Scott said.
Despite Scott laying down the hammer, Rose gave a lot of credit to sophomore defensive specialist Lacey Fuller.
“The key player for me was Lacey. I thought she came in and was tough and made some great plays, and had good energy,” Rose said. “She didn’t play a lot and she had 10 digs in a match that we needed her to make some big digs, so I thought she did a good job.”
Next up for the Lions is a Saturday night showdown with No. 2 Texas at 7 p.m at Rec Hall. A win would allow the Lions to improve to 5-0 and go 2-0 in the Nike Big Four Volleyball Classic — something that the squad has not been able to do in two attempts. A win would also avenge the 3-2 loss the Lions suffered last year to the Longhorns in the classic.
To email reporter: amd5533@psu.edu