No. 13 Penn State women's volleyball took down No. 11 Purdue on Saturday for a Senior "Night" victory. The Nittany Lions (17-5, 9-3 Big Ten) beat the Boilermakers (14-7, 7-5 Big Ten) in four sets.
It was a close match throughout, especially in the last two sets of the contest. Penn State won the first set 25-17, fell in the second with just 18 points, then took away the last two sets, 25-21 and 25-23, respectively. It was expected to be a close game with both programs in the Top 25 and heading into the match on win streaks.
Unsurprisingly, though, opposite hitter Kennedy Martin proved yet again why she deserves some serious consideration for AVCA Player of the Year. In kills alone, she tallied 24 points for the Nittany Lions, which is 50 percent more kills than outside hitter Emmi Sellman who had the second-most kills on the team (12). Martin had totaled 27 points Saturday afternoon, including her three block assists, and had six digs as well.
Penn State women's volleyball defeats Purdue in AVCA Top 25 battle
As for Sellman, she's been relatively quiet throughout the year. With Whitney Lauenstein holding down the fort on the outside, Sellman and Caroline Jurevicius haven't had as many opportunities to develop some consistency on the season.
On Saturday, though, Lauenstein didn't have her best performance, hitting in the negatives (-0.037 hitting percentage) with just six kills on 27 attempts (seven errors). Sellman provided that anchor on the outside for the Nittany Lions instead with a 0.229 hitting percentage. She had just four attack errors on 35 attempts up at the net.
Helping Martin out in blocking were middles Kendall Northern and Gabrielle Nichols who had seven and four block assists, respectively. Setter Alexis Stucky and Sellman were tied for fourth-most blocks with three.
While it wasn't a senior-heavy afternoon on offense, excluding Martin of course, experience on defense helped Penn State out a lot. Martin and fellow senior and defensive specialist Jocelyn Nathan led the team with nine digs, Stucky had eight, and Lauenstein had four.
The Nittany Lions have struggled finishing sets on a high note throughout the year, especially at the beginning. That aspect of their game improving is critical in this final stretch of the season and into the NCAA Tournament. This is now their fifth consecutive win dating back to mid-October when they swept USC on the road. It's also their third victory over a ranked team in this five-game stretch (Oregon, Indiana, and now Purdue).
If Penn State can continue stacking wins, which shouldn't be too difficult considering the rest of its schedule features just one team currently in the Top 25 before the new rankings update following this weekend (No. 21 Minnesota), it'll be in a great spot heading into the postseason.
Getting a good seed is critical in this 64-team playoff. The Nittany Lions, according to Central Oregon Daily, are currently slotted into the No. 3 seed group. After this weekend, it's possible that they get boosted into the group of four No. 2 seeds.
There are still five games remaining, but Penn State has a lot working in its favor to land a good seed in the tournament. Last year, the blue and white were a No. 8 seed and had to take on No. 1 Texas in their second game of that region, eventually losing that match. Avoiding the top dogs for as long as possible will push the Nittany Lions farther in this tournament and prepare them for those challenges when they come.
Add us as a preferred source on Google