“We simply made too many errors to give ourselves a chance, 12 service errors and 23 hitting errors are not a recipe to be successful any night in the Big Ten,” head coach Cathy George said. “It's disappointing to start off a home stand this way, but we have an opportunity to get things back on track to try to redeem ourselves.”

The Spartans had a total of 12 service errors while facing eight aces made by the Huskers. 

Redshirt senior outside hitters Autumn Bailey and Brooke Kranda had a total of nine kills during the match and senior middle Alyssa Garvelink had eight kills and five blocks.

“We serve tough, we’re know for that, but we also had a lot of errors with that so that’s been tough,” Bailey said. “We’ll figure that out. Just taking advantage when we have one-on-one situations and we’ll work on that too.”

On Saturday night, the team faced Iowa where the Spartans only dropped one set and came out victorious. 

Senior outside hitter Holly Toliver lead the team with 16 kills, three aces, and seven digs. Following behind her were Bailey with a double-double with 15 kills and 16 digs and Garvelink posted 11 kills and four blocks. 

“Personally, I thought that I could have played a cleaner game, but it’s good that I had my teammates to support me when I’m struggling with the errors that I had,” Toliver said. We got some great players on our team.”

Iowa’s hitting was over .400 and still lost to the Spartans only winning the third set, where the Spartans rallied in the fourth to get the victory.

For George, it was not an easy win, but the team did what they needed to do when the team began to struggle.

"It wasn't easy for us at times tonight, but I thought we stuck with it and had some players step up at different times in the match and carry us,” George said. “We don't have much time, since there's such a quick turnaround with Penn State coming in here on Wednesday — so we'll count on the maturity and leadership to get our rest and get our bodies right for a big match midweek."

On Wednesday at 7 p.m, No. 1 Penn State will travel to Jenison Field House to face the Spartans for the second time this season.

The last time these two teams met the Spartans lost the match 3-1 back on Oct. 13.

“I’m super excited about that because every time they come here they really have worked us and drilled us,” Toliver said. “It would be amazing being a senior to come in and just take that game. Really really take that game. That would be good.”