IU volleyball team swept by No. 1 Penn State

The IU volleyball team battled hard against the top-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions on the road Wednesday but ultimately came up short.

Penn State has not lost a game or a set this year, and for the first two sets, that streak appeared to be in little danger, as the visitors won 25-13 and 25-14.

However, after a halftime pep talk from coach Sherry Dunbar, IU came out a different team.

“We talked about playing aggressive in the locker room,” Dunbar said. “We brought the energy (in the third set), and we weren’t intimidated by them.”

In the third set, the Hoosiers kept the Nittany Lions on their heels and led 22-21 before ultimately losing the final four points.

The overall loss was the Hoosiers’ first in their last in five matches and drops their record to 6-7 in the Big Ten and 14-11 overall.

IU senior middle blocker Erica Short said she was pleased with the Hoosiers’ play in the third set and thought they could have come out on top in it.

“We obviously could have won the third set, but I was proud of how of our team played,” Short said. “We also stayed aggressive and didn’t care that they were the No. 1 team in the nation.”

Statistically, IU was dominated on both offense and defense, as they lost the kill category 36-26 and the dig category 37-31.

However, one area IU did win statistically was service aces, by a count of 5-4.

One of those aces came from IU freshman defensive specialist Caitlin Cox, who said afterward she was pleased with her serving.

“I was trying to serve aggressively and put the ball in play,” Cox said.  

IU returns to action Saturday in East Lansing, Mich., for a matchup against Michigan State.

The Hoosiers beat the Spartans 3-1 in Bloomington last month for their first Big Ten win.

Dunbar said the Hoosiers are already preparing hard for the match.

“We already watched film on them and can’t take anything for granted,” she said. “They are a young team, and we need to play as well as we did last time.”

The Hoosiers’ match Saturday against Michigan State begins at 6:30 p.m. and live audio of the contest can be found at IUHoosiers.com.