Team looks for win to stay over .500

Historic St. John arena on the campus of Ohio State produced a historic match between the No. 29 Hoosiers and the No. 31 Buckeyes Wednesday. OSU used a late rally to stun the Hoosiers 3-2. \nOhio State came out firing in game one by jumping out to a 12-7 lead on a kill by freshman Stephanie Higgins. The Buckeyes would close out game one on an 18-7 run to close out the game by the final of 30-17. \nIU came back and won game two and game three by the scores of 30-28 and 31-29. But OSU would take an exciting game four by the score of 30-27. In the decisive game five, IU had a 13-10 lead, but failed to shut the door and allowed OSU to come back and win game five 18-16.\n"That hasn't happened to us much this year," coach Katie Weismiller said. "We've been able to finish matches throughout the year and that will continue to be a strength for us."\nJunior Melissa Brewer led Indiana with 21 kills and a .425 hitting percentage, and sophomore setter Victoria Zimmerman notched 56 assists. Sophomore Stacey Gordon led the Buckeyes with 27 kills. \nThe loss put the Hoosiers back to one game over the .500 mark in the conference, but IU will get a chance to quickly jump back to two games over with a match against powerhouse Penn State Saturday night in Bloomington. \nThe No. 13 Penn State Nittany Lions (20-5, 10-4) come into Bloomington in second place by behind Minnesota. Penn State is just 3-4 in conference play since starting off 7-0 and is 4-3 on the road in conference play. \nThe Nittany Lions are first in the Big Ten with a .304 hitting percentage and first in blocks with an average of 3.26 per game. Senior Mishka Levy leads the team with 3.78 kills per game, while junior Robyn Guokas leads the team with 1.46 blocks per game. \nIU (18-9. 8-7) is currently fifth in the Big Ten and third in overall wins. Earlier this year, IU lost to Penn state 3-0 but own a 10-3 record at home this year.\nThe Hoosiers have never beaten Penn State, but assistant coach Cydrice Carter said the team feels strongly that Saturday night might be the first time. \n"This is the year we can beat Penn State," Carter said. "We are at the peak of our game right now."\nRealizing Penn state's ability to block shots, IU has worked on different types of attack and shots to counter the Nittany Lions' defense.\n"We have worked on different types of shots that will hopefully highlight Penn State's weaknesses on defense," assistant coach Ryan Thesis said. \nSophomore Christina Archibald continues to lead the Hoosiers with a 4.32 kills per game average, while sophomore Katie Pollom leads the team in blocks with 1.10 blocks per game average.