Women’s Volleyball Eliminates Siena in Straight Sets
The Siena Saints (19-14, 17-4 MAAC) came to Rec Hall Friday to face the Nittany Lions of Penn State (30-3, 18-2 B1G) in the opening round of the NCAA Women’s Volleyball tournament.
Siena fought hard in the opening set; although they were not able to handle many of Micha Hancock’s serves, leading to a 9-2 Penn State lead. In Friday’s match, the senior setter broke the Big Ten single-season record for aces with 116.
Siena’s Meghann Wright completed two kills and Rachel Stoklosa followed with another making the score 10-7.
The Saints did especially well returning Ali Frantti’s scoring opportunities, giving Wright the opportunity to collect 5 kills in the opening set.
However, the Lions were too much for the Saints to handle, winning the set 25-17 as Hancock finished with an ace and Haleigh Washington collected five kills and two blocks.
“It’s cool. I want to try and go back on the end line and serve as hard as I can,” replied Hancock when asked about her record-breaking night. “It’s cool to get the ace thing, but it’s also cool to win.”
The Nittany Lions opened the second set 4-0 behind two more aces from Hancock and two kills from Nia Grant. Siena pulled the score to within 8-6 following a couple Penn State errors, but that would be as close as they, with Penn State finishing the second set on a 17-4 run.
“We only had eight errors in the match so what we do can cause people problems when we control the ball,” said head coach Russ Rose.
Simone Lee came off the bench to collect five kills in the set, greatly contributing to the team. Penn State took the second set 25-10.
It didn’t take Penn State long to regain their form following the halftime break. Hancock opened the third set with two aces again and Washington stepped up with four more kills. Washington finished the night with a team-high nine kills
When asked how well they were able to control the net, Washington said, “As a whole yes, both me and Nia did a great job of closing the block and Aiyana and Megan really worked hard to press.”
The Nittany Lions used a 9-2 run to break it open in the third and never looked back. Siena began making many mistakes and Penn State closed it out 25-5.
Penn State returns to action tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Rec Hall when they take on Dayton (30-5) in second round action. The match can once again be heard live on ComRadio.
Michael Carnuccio is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mikeyc48@gmail.com.
