Penn State women's volleyball celebrates Senior Night victory over Northwestern

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Penn State Women’s Volleyball celebrated their senior night with a sweep over Northwestern.

The Nittany Lions now have their last home match of the regular season under their belt, and what better way to end it than by celebrating the seniors who helped make their success possible.

Penn State was an offensive powerhouse and a brick wall at the net in the match itself. Zoe Weatherington was perfect on her first seven swings of the match and finished with eight kills on .545 hitting in addition to seven blocks and three digs.

Jess Mruzik tallied a team-high 15 kills on .364 hitting. Camryn Hannah and Taylor Trammell also contributed to the kill count with nine and six respectively. After registering her 5,000th career assist on Friday night, Mac Podraza tacked on 40 more while leading the team to .298 hitting.

The Nittany Lions also racked up 11 blocks, including a pair by Allie Holland. Gillian Grimes and Mruzik each came up with a team-high eight digs while Maddy Bilinovic added five.

After the match, players and families stuck around to honor their seniors with flowers, cards, and gifts in an emotional ceremony.

“I just want to say congratulations to these guys. They’ve had a great career here and not only have they been great on the court, they’ve been exceptional off the court and I’m happy for them,” head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley said. “It’s great to get this win for this graduating class.”

Now that they’ve conquered the weekend, Penn State will prepare to hit the road on Wednesday to take on the Maryland Terrapins followed by a Friday match against Ohio State.

“We’re going to take a day off to reset, see my family and spend time with the girls and then get back in the gym, get on a plane and get ready to go get two more dubs,” senior middle blocker Allie Holland said.

Penn State currently sits at No. 14 in the AVCA Poll with 714 total points. The official bracket selections for this year’s NCAA Tournament will be announced Sunday, Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

The upcoming match against the Terrapins will occur this Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Xfinity Center Pavilion.

Anna Licastro is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email arl5942@psu.edu.