UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – It was an exciting night at Rec Hall for Penn State women's volleyball Saturday as Kendall White broke the program's career digs record while helping the Lions advance to the NCAA Regional with a 3-1 (22-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-20) win over Towson.
The Nittany Lions improved to 26-5 with the win in the NCAA Second Round. They have advanced past the opening weekend of the tournament in 17 consecutive seasons. To get there, they had to get past a tough Towson team that finished 29-3, went unbeaten in the CAA during the regular season, won the CAA Tournament title, and entered the day with a 23-match winning streak.
"I'd like to first recognize Towson on a terrific season. Not only did they have a great year in their conference, but I thought they came out and they played very well this evening," Penn State head coach Russ Rose said. "They won 29 matches this season and that isn't easy to do."
Penn State will play Cincinnati in the Regional Semifinal on Friday at Stanford. The winner of that match will play in the Regional Final on Saturday against the winner between Stanford and Utah.
White needed just three digs to break the previous record of 1,957 set by Kaleena Walters (2002-05), who was in attendance for the match. White finished with 14, giving her 1,969 for her career. The record-breaking dig came midway through the opening set.
Penn State started slow with a loss in the first set but righted the ship with easy wins in sets two and three. Things got interesting again in the fourth set as Towson took a 16-12 lead on a kill by Olivia Finckel. The Lions took the lead at 20-19 on an ace by Brooklynn Hill. She added another ace to make it 24-19 before Lauren Clark closed the match with her fifth kill.
Aces were the story of the match for Penn State. The Lions finished with 11, including three apiece from Clark and Hill. Clark, a freshman, entered the day with zero career aces, while Hill, a sophomore, had just one in her career. Those two stepped up big at the service line and were joined by Jonni Parker and Serena Gray with two apiece and Gabby Blossom with one.
When Penn State wasn't getting aces, it was putting Towson in bad position that resulted in 13 blocks. Gray was a part of seven of those blocks, while Parker and Clark contributed four apiece.
Completing an all-around solid performance, the Lions hit .336 despite posting a .229 mark in set one. The number was boosted by a .438 clip in set four.
Parker finished with a team-high 19 kills on .447 hitting and added five digs. Hord hit .545 with 13 kills, while Tori Gorrell tallied 12 kills on .385 hitting and added three blocks.
Gabby Blossom posted her second double-double of the weekend with 47 assists and 11 digs. Jenna Hampton finished with seven digs, including a couple of highlight-worthy saves.
Four Towson players tallied double-digit kills, led by Emily Jarome with 19. She was joined by Silvia Grassini and Olivia Finckel with 11 apiece and Lydia Wiers with 10. The Tigers were coming off their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory with a five-set win over American on Friday.
Penn State now turns its attention to a Cincinnati team that is 27-6 on the season, including wins over VCU and No. 6 overall seed Pittsburgh in the first two rounds of the tournament. The Bearcats are led by Jordan Thompson, a redshirt senior who had 50 kills in a match against UConn earlier this season.
The Lions are 5-0 in the all-time series with the Bearcats, but the teams haven't played since 2003. They met once in the NCAA Tournament. It was the first NCAA Tournament match for both programs back in 1981.