No. 11 Penn State women's volleyball can't "Dig out" a win against No. 19 Purdue

By Olivia Dunne

PSU Women's Volleyball Dig Pink Match

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- 11 Penn State Women’s Volleyball was upset by No. 19 Purdue on Sunday at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions are now 14-5 on the season.

Before the match started, the scene was set for a Penn State win. A home game, 3,112 fans and a sea of pink including new uniforms for the annual “dig pink” match supporting breast cancer awareness.

Early on, it seemed this atmosphere helped Penn State pull ahead in set one. They began with a massive kill from senior Camryn Hannah, who tallied 13 on the day as the ground shook from the crowd.

Then, the errors began rolling in. Attacking errors on both sides of the net were a massive setback for both teams during the match, with Penn State earning three in a row following Hannah’s kill to make it 4-1 Purdue. This influx of errors seemed to rattle the Nittany Lions, and coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley took the first timeout to allow her team to collect themselves.

Later, the first set saw a stretch of six errors in a row from both sides, allowing each team to collect three points to make it 9-6 Boilermakers. This was the longest stretch of errors of the match, but certainly not the last.

Penn State managed to gain back the lead with a monster kill from senior Jess Mruzik, pumping life back into the crowd. She had the most kills of any player at the end of the match. Penn State kept the lead for the remainder of the set.

Errors continued to haunt Rec Hall this spooky season as the Boilermakers sealed their fate with another attacking error to close out set one. Penn State finished 25-18 and looked to do the same in the second set.

Purdue true freshman Chloe Chicoine opened set two with a kill and continued to dominate the rest of the set with seven total. The matchup between Chicoine and Mruzik began to take shape in this set, and it quickly became a back-and-forth of these two powerhouses for the remainder of the afternoon.

Once again, errors upon errors. After a service error on Purdue to make it 5-4 Nittany Lions, the blue and white responded with a service error of their own. Then, an attacking error on the Boilermakers followed by yet another Penn State service error. After this whirlwind, the score was 7-6 Penn State.

Set two was neck-and-neck with neither team gaining more than a three-point lead. Notably, the only service ace of the day was scored by junior Raven Colvin of Purdue making the score 19-17 Boilermakers. Mruzik responded with a morale booster kill for the Nittany Lions, but it wasn’t enough. Purdue took their first set victory with a score of 25-23.

For the first time in the match, there were less than 20 errors during set three. However, set three saw a lack of communication from both sides allowing for either team to put points on the board.

Following another kill attempt, Mruzik capitalized on a recovering Purdue defense to bring Penn State up 3-1. Later, it was Purdue’s turn with Chicoine sending a kill down on Penn State’s end as they watched it hit the court to tie the set 10-10.

Subsequently, Mruzik was able to find a hole in the Purdue defense and place a kill perfectly on the corner of the court to tie it again at 20-20. It wasn’t enough to save the blue and white, and they fell to a block by Colvin to close out set three and put Purdue just one set away from an upset.

Penn State began set four seemingly fired up after their huddle. Mruzik put up three kills in a row to put the Nittany Lions ahead early with a score of 7-3. Then two challenges split by either side gave each team a brief rest. Penn State lost their challenge against an out-of-bounds call, while Purdue won theirs on the same grounds. The score was now 16-15 Penn State.

Chicoine saw Mruzik’s three kills and decided she needed three of her own. She put up three in a row and six total in this set. As a true freshman, she made a name for herself at Rec Hall this afternoon. The score was now 19-18 Purdue.

The crowd seemed to believe there was still a chance. They heckled the servers for Purdue until the very end, perhaps causing a key error at the very end to make it 24-22 Boilermakers.

It was sophomore Eva Hudson, the second leading attacker of the match, who made the final kill to earn Purdue their first victory over Penn State since 2021.

Penn State will travel to Ann Arbor to take on the Michigan Wolverines on Oct. 27 at 7 p.m.

Olivia Dunne is a third-year studying broadcast journalism. To contact her, email opd5045@psu.edu.

Credits

Author
Olivia Dunne
Photographer
Esteban Marenco