Megan Courtney Does It Again
In four long sets, No. 3 Penn State secured a win over No. 13 Illinois last Friday evening in Champaign, Ill. (25-16, 25-18, 24-26, 27-25).
As expected, senior Megan Courtney joined an elite group of athletes as she reached 1,000 career digs to go along with her 1,000 career kill achievement from last week. Courtney put up another double-double performance with team-highs 18 kills and 19 digs. She also put up six blocks.
Redshirt senior Aiyana Whitney followed close behind with 16 kills, one dig and three blocks. Sophomore Ali Frantti came in third with 10 kills, five digs and one block.
Sophomore Haleigh Washington took the team-high for blocks with seven and contributed 11 kills, three digs and one ace. Freshman Bryanna Weiskircher continues to prove her dominance on defense with 14 digs and three blocks while steadying the team hitting percentage to a .289 with 54 assists.
Penn State’s performance significantly went down after the first two sets. Their total kill errors doubled while their kill totals slightly decreased. A good deal of points scored in the final set was due to Illinois attacking errors. Illinois had 10 attacks errors in that final set and 16 kills. Penn State had 15 kills and four errors.
The Nittany Lions clearly outplayed Illinois on defense, but offensively they didn’t look as sharp as they usually do. Without those extra Illinois errors in the final set, Penn State faced the match going to five. Even though the team seemed like they couldn’t find the right momentum, a stellar performance by Courtney kept them afloat and powered them to the win.
Check back soon for a recap of Penn State’s second game in Illinois this past weekend against Northwestern.
As expected, senior Megan Courtney joined an elite group of athletes as she reached 1,000 career digs to go along with her 1,000 career kill achievement from last week. Courtney put up another double-double performance with team-highs 18 kills and 19 digs. She also put up six blocks.
Redshirt senior Aiyana Whitney followed close behind with 16 kills, one dig and three blocks. Sophomore Ali Frantti came in third with 10 kills, five digs and one block.
Sophomore Haleigh Washington took the team-high for blocks with seven and contributed 11 kills, three digs and one ace. Freshman Bryanna Weiskircher continues to prove her dominance on defense with 14 digs and three blocks while steadying the team hitting percentage to a .289 with 54 assists.
Penn State’s performance significantly went down after the first two sets. Their total kill errors doubled while their kill totals slightly decreased. A good deal of points scored in the final set was due to Illinois attacking errors. Illinois had 10 attacks errors in that final set and 16 kills. Penn State had 15 kills and four errors.
The Nittany Lions clearly outplayed Illinois on defense, but offensively they didn’t look as sharp as they usually do. Without those extra Illinois errors in the final set, Penn State faced the match going to five. Even though the team seemed like they couldn’t find the right momentum, a stellar performance by Courtney kept them afloat and powered them to the win.
Check back soon for a recap of Penn State’s second game in Illinois this past weekend against Northwestern.
