Penn State women’s volleyball loses first game of Katie Schumacher-Cawley era
Penn State came into Rec Hall with a streak of 13 consecutive sets won under its belt, but that quickly changed on Saturday.
In just the second match of Big Ten play for the blue and white, the No. 9 Nittany Lions were the ones losing in straight sets against Michigan.
The Nittany Lions opened the first set with the lead and didn’t lose it until the Wolverines were up 16-15.
After that, Penn State would only manage to score four more points for the rest of the set.
The worst of the three sets would be the middle one for the blue and white as with Penn State up 5-2, the Wolverines went on a seven-point run that propelled them to victory.
Prior to this match, the Nittany Lions had only dropped two sets in two different matches, with both of those coming in the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge and both also became Penn State victories.
This would not be one of those scenarios, however, with the Wolverines trailing 1-0 in the third set, but never again for the rest of the night.
For Michigan, this was a big matchup as it was unranked headed into the match despite only having one loss on its resume.
Last season, the Nittany Lions had only lost in straight sets on two different occasions and this is their first time doing so at Rec Hall since March of 2021 against Ohio State.
Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley spoke about how tough of an opponent Michigan was as they defeated the blue and white in every aspect of the match.
“Michigan is a great team and we knew that coming in,” Schumacher-Cawley said. “I think we struggled in all areas of our game tonight.”
The Nittany Lions travel to take on Wisconsin on Friday where they will look to get back in the win column.
Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
