Penn State women’s volleyball remains undefeated, beats Saint John’s in Penn State Invitational

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.— Coming off of a win over Princeton in straight sets earlier in the day, the No. 3 Penn State women’s volleyball squad looked to continue their stellar start to the season in an afternoon matchup with a 7-2 St. John’s team.

The Red Storm won their two previous games in the Penn State Invitational, beating Princeton 3-2 and Duke 3-1.

The undefeated Nittany Lions came into the match with two Invitational wins as well. The team beat Duke and Princeton, both in straight sets.

The Nittany Lions battled with the Red Storm in the first set until a Jess Mruzik kill extended the Penn State lead to 19-15, their largest up to that point.

The Mruzik kill was part of a crucial 4-point run that powered the Nittany Lions to a win in the opening set. It was also part of a strong first set for her as she wracked up 7 kills and 15 attacks.

Junior Erin Jones led St. John’s on the stat sheet in the first set with four kills and 11 attacks.

Penn State rode their momentum from the first set into the second as the Nittany Lions struck first off a Giorgia Walther attack error and a block assist credited to Taylor Trammell and Caroline Jurevicius.

St. John’s would respond, cycling back-and-forth with a tie score and a one-point St. John’s lead in the first half of the second set.

The Red Storm would expand this lead to four, powered by kills from Ana Franca Benjamin and Wiktoria Kowalczyk. Franca Benjamin also added a service ace in the St. John’s run.

However, when the Nittany Lions were down, they proved they were certainly not out. An attack error from Walther gave Penn State a 15-14 lead.

St. John’s would eventually regain the lead on a Penn State service error followed by a Jones kill that extended the Red Storm lead to 19-17.

Penn State had another comeback left in them, storming back again to win the second set 25-22 on a Red Storm service error.

The Nittany Lions started off on an offensive tear in the third set with a 5-0 scoring run that was capped off with a service ace by junior Gillian Grimes.

Jones worked to get St. John’s back in the set with a pair of kills. Franca Benjamin also tacked on a pair early in the third set.

The Penn State firepower proved to be too much for the Red Storm as the Nittany Lions extended their lead to 17-11 midway through the set. Moments later, Penn State would extend their lead to 22-13 on a St. John’s attack error.

Grad student Camryn Hannah picked up the final kill that would give Penn State a 3-0 win.

Coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley was very pleased with her team’s performance. “I’m really happy for the team and they competed hard. It’s hard to win. I thought we struggled at points in the match and we made adjustments and found a way to score…the focus is to get better every set we play and I think a lot of us are doing that.”

Jurevicius finished as the match’s hitting leader at .909. Reflecting on her performance, she remarked, “It was a quick turnaround this morning. I think I just needed to take a little reset and I felt a lot better this afternoon…I decided that I got to show up for my teammates.”

Penn State moved to 8-0 with the win while St. John’s fell to 7-3.

The Nittany Lions will look to improve to 9-0 as the team gets set to take on top-ranked Pittsburgh on the road at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

Isaac Hallock is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email idh5055@psu.edu.