Volleyball: Women's
Lions blow by Bowling Green in second round of NCAA Tournament
After a decisive round one victory over Binghamton Friday night, the Penn State women’s volleyball team dispatched Bowling Green in three sets, 25-15, 25-12, 25-15, in NCAA Tournament second round action Saturday night in Rec Hall.
Penn State came out of the gate slowly against the Falcons, committing six attack errors and five service errors in the first set. Although Penn State only hit .171 as a team in the first, they held the Falcons to a -.094 hitting percentage as Bowling Green only converted 42 of their attacks in the opening stanza.
Despite the Lions poor hitting, they put together a balanced attack in the first set. Ariel Scott had three kills, Megan Courtney, Micha Hancock, Deja McClendon and Katie Slay each had two, and Nia Grant added one.
The Lions managed to clean up their game a little bit in the second though, hitting .370 as a team and committing just three errors in the set. The offensive balance continued in the second as McClendon had four kills in the stanza, while Grant and Courtney each added three, Scott added two, and Hancock and Slay had one each.
Penn State came out slowly again in the third set. Despite Hancock rattling off three consecutive service aces early, Bowling Green managed to hang around. But after being tied at 10, the Lions went on a 15-2 run to close out the set and the match in convincing fashion.
Despite many opportunities to mount a comeback, Bowling Green continually shot themselves in the foot in the third, committing six attack errors and three service errors, while hitting .000 for the set.
Scott finished as the Lions leading hitter with eight kills, while Grant and McClendon added seven, Courtney and Slay added six, and Hancock added three on the evening.
Bowling Green’s leading hitter was Danielle Tonyan with 11 kills, while Paige Penrod added five, and Kelsey Bates and Kari Glenn each added one.
"I thought we played pretty well,” coach Russ Rose said postgame. “We did what I thought we needed to do."
With the win, Penn State advances to the round of 16 where they will face 16th ranked Kentucky on Dec. 7 in Mackey Arena at Purdue University.
Kentucky beat Ohio State, three sets to one, in their second round matchup on Saturday night in Lexington.