The No. 18 MSU volleyball team went into State College, Pa. to face the powerhouse Nittany Lions, knowing it would be a tough match.
The Spartans found out the hard way in their second straight loss. MSU (11-5 overall, 3-3 Big Ten) fell in three games 19-30, 24-30 and 27-30 in front of 1,215 fans at Rec Hall. The No. 9 Penn State moved to 16-1, on the year with the victory and 6-0 in conference play.
The loss followed a sweep by Michigan on Wednesday.
The match was a tale of numbers, and Penn State had the better ones in all areas. MSU had another dismal hitting performance, coming in at .162 for the match. However, the Spartans did improve their hitting numbers throughout the match.
They went from .091 in game one and .147 in game two to a performance of .237 in game three. But Penn State hit .310 for the entire match, including a near flawless performance in game three where they hit .462 with 14 kills and only two attacking errors.
The Spartans had an impressive number of team blocks on the match, totaling eight. However, the Nittany Lions outplayed the Spartans at the net as well, totaling 12 team blocks.
MSU had three service aces, but once again, Penn State had the upper hand with six. In the loss, senior middle Angela Morley tallied her 800th kill while adding five blocks. She is now only six block assists away from setting a new school record.
But not even Morley could help the Spartans stay with the Nittany Lions. The Spartans came out flat in game one, and despite six kills in seven swings from Morley, MSU fell quickly, 30-19.
MSU played more in system in game two, but Penn State held a three to four point advantage for most of the game. The Nittany Lions closed out the game on a 11-5 run en route to the 30-24 victory.
It looked like the Spartans would avoid a sweep in game three. MSU led for most of the contest, but like their game against Minnesota earlier this year, the team slowly let the Nittany Lions crawl back.
MSU led by as many as five points, but Penn State tied the score at 22, taking a 23-22 lead on the next point. Each teams traded points until the score was knotted at 27. At that time, Penn State was firing on all cylinders, taking the final three points to take a 30-27 win in game three and a match sweep.
