Match Day: PSU vs Minnesota (8:00 p.m.) -- w/Stat Joust

5,000+ Blue and White fans were almost all-blue, Saturday night, as Minnesota gave the Nittany Lions all they could handle, and in some cases more. Penn State (13-0, 2-0 B1G) which jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two sets (25-22, 25-16), watched that lead evaporate to a tenacious and talented Minnesota (9-3, 1-1 B1G) squad, which won sets three and four (19-25, 20-25), and battled in the hard-fought fifth set before the Nittany Lions finally prevailed, 15-12. The first set may have been a harbinger of things to come, as Minnesota outhit Penn State .324 to PSU’s .267.

Asked after the match how it felt to go from a dominant performance in the 2nd set (and a 2-0 lead) to a winner-take-all fifth set, 6-2 Sr. OH Megan Courtney had a simple, to-the-point answer: “Can’t happen.” Courtney went on to say:

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I thought we played well in the second set, but that break, it’s good for them because they got a chance to regroup and change their lineup — they switched who they were playing in the middle — but that doesn’t mean that we stop playing, and I think we stopped playing a little bit in the second, and third and fourth sets.

After the match, Coach Rose complimented the play of two seniors: Penn State’s Megan Courtney (a match-high 22 kills, with 13 digs and five blocks) and Minnesota’s 6-1 OH Daly Santana (19 kills, hitting .255, which in a match where Penn State hit .198 as a team and Minnesota hit .216 was very good).