STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - An injury-depleted MSU volleyball team was no match for defending national champion Penn State on Saturday.
The Nittany Lions easily defeated the Spartans in straight games, never trailing MSU.
“We didn’t perform,” MSU head coach Chuck Erbe said. “We play against really good teams and they expose our weaknesses.”
The 27 attacking errors, 10 service errors, four receiving errors and one blocking error destroyed any chance MSU had to win, Erbe said.
“Good teams make you pay for your mental errors, poor teams don’t,” he said. “When you play against poor teams that don’t match up with you athletically you can get away with some poor play. You can’t do that against a Penn State.”
MSU opened the match strong, forcing ties in the first game at three all, four all and five all.
Then the Lions broke the game open with a 7-0 run, largely aided by six MSU serving errors. The Spartans collected just two more points before losing the game 7-15.
Junior outside hitter Erin Hartley said the absence of seniors Jessica Sanborn and Sarah Gustin to injury was a factor. She said MSU is dealing with an inexperienced lineup that is not familiar with each other on the court yet, but added that didn’t make up for the loss.
“If you look at Penn State, they had freshmen and sophomores out there, too, so we matched up even,” she said. “The fact is we shouldn’t have been making mistakes. We were trying hard, but we just weren’t thinking.”
Hartley lead the Spartans in the match with 12 kills and tied for the team lead with 7 digs.
MSU continued to struggle in game two.
The Spartans hit a mere .081 for the game, which they lost 5-15.
MSU’s poor hitting percentage in game one (.156) and game two prompted Erbe to make a switch in the lineup before the start of game three. Erbe benched senior setter Christie Landry, who had tallied 19 assists through two games, in favor of freshman setter Nicki Colson, who tallied 11 in game three.
The change in hitting percentage wasn’t drastic, but at .119, it was an improvement.
“It’s the setter’s responsibility for the attack,” Erbe said. “You perform, you play. You don’t and there’s somebody waiting in the wings.”
Game three started ugly for MSU, with the Lions taking a quick 0-5 lead. The Spartans fought to make the final score a respectable 7-15.
After the match, Penn State head coach Russ Rose said he knew MSU was missing two of its best players, but agreed with Hartley that that wasn’t a reason for MSU’s poor play. He said Erbe’s been in coaching long enough to know Penn State wasn’t going to take the match less seriously.
“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Erbe said. “It’s a lesson in life. Nobody in life is going to give you anything, and there is certainly no gimmes in the Big Ten.”
Erbe said MSU will focus on practice and prepare for Illinois and Purdue next weekend.
