Home advantage has its perks.
Penn State women’s volleyball went 3-0 Tuesday night at Rec Hall to sweep Louisville in a top 10 NCAA Division I matchup. The Nittany Lions, ranked No. 7, fired off more efficient kills overall and went on scoring runs in the two of the three matches, to take down the No. 4 Cardinals.
Not only did the crowd seem to ignite the Nittany Lions on the court, but also when a Penn Stater would serve up an Ace.
“We’re so lucky,” Coach Katie Schumacher-Cawly said. “Rec Hall is a special place to play and I’m grateful for the students and the ‘wRECking Crew’ and we hope we can continue to win and bring more of them here.”
There were 3,865 cheering fans in attendance.
Louisville was the first on the board with a kill by Anna DeBeer. Penn State quickly earned a point, and then the dance of the back and forth began with two Penn State points, and two Louisville points, and so on and so forth until Penn State’s Camryn Hannah showed the Cardinals her Ace.
It was 10-7 favoring Penn State and not enough of a gap between the two to predict who was going to take the first match. As the match unfolded, Taylor Trammel helped add to Penn State’s edge with a timely block to make the score 17-11, following a four-point run, which was punctuated by Izzy Starck’s kill.
Louisville called a timeout and then went on to earn four more points in that set as the Nittany Lions continued to pounce on every opportunity to work together. The first set went to Penn State 25-15.
The second looked much more favorable for Louisville. They started it off by capitalizing on a Penn State error and then a kill by Cara Cresse.
The Cardinals held onto the lead until Penn State delivered another Starck Ace. A few points later, Louisville had to regroup when Gillian Grimes punched in her Ace.
Whatever was said during the Cardinals timeout helped. They went on a fiery 6-0 run with senior Cardinal Charitie Luper making three kills in a row that led to the Nittany Lions first timeout.
Kamden Schrand then smashed an Ace – when the score was 20-18 Cardinals – that gave Penn State a jolt to end the set 25-19 Penn State.
Penn State started the third set looking to make the sweep. Jumping into the middle of the set, Caroline Jurevicius made her tenth kill of the night making the score 12-8. Coach Dani Busboom Kelly called a timeout for the Cardinals.
This time the timeout didn’t have as much of an effect. Penn State kept going as Jess Mruzik and Jurevicius continued to add points to the scoresheet. When it reached 19-12, Louisville called another timeout.
Trammell then deflated the Cardinals even further when she had her fourth block of the night, which created a 4-0 scoring run for the Nittany Lions. It ended by an error from Jurevicius to make the score 20-13.
Rec Hall was rumbling as fans stood for match point. Hannah served for the Nittany Lions. She sent it over and it was passed around to each side a few times before Starck set up Mruzik for her thirteenth kill of the night.
The Nittany Lions won 3-0 with the final 25-13 set win.
Not only was Mruzik high on the stat sheet for kills but so was the Nebraska transfer Jurevicius with 11 as she played her first game at Rec Hall.
“I grew up being a Penn State volleyball fan, and I was a little girl up in those stands the last time I was in here,” Jurevicious said. “And to be on that court where so many women have come through here and made this program…it is surreal and I’m very thankful that my path led me here.”
The Nittany Lions are undefeated. They head to Kentucky to take on the University of Kentucky on September 6. As for the Cardinals, they are 2-1 and will play South Dakota next in the Northern Kentucky University Tournament.
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