Penn State Women's Volleyball Weekend Recap

Penn State Women’s Volleyball ended last weekend with an even split, sweeping the Iowa Hawkeyes on Friday before getting a taste of their own medicine from the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday.

With a win and a loss added to their record, the Nittany Lions now sit at 13-4 overall and 7-1 in the conference.

On Friday night, the blue and white faced off against the Hawkeyes in Iowa City, where they put on a dominant performance. Sophomore outside hitter Alexa Markley hit .469 and led all players with a career-high 17 kills. The team's impressive hitting would not have been possible without star setter Mac Podraza, who led Penn State to .373 hitting overall with 44 assists.

The Nittany Lions also totaled an impressive 52 digs compared to Iowa’s 33 and held the Hawkeyes to a 0.97 hitting percentage. Gillian Grimes led the team with 19 digs and Maddy Bilinovic joined her in double digits with 13.

With this victory, Penn State improved to 58-0 in the all-time series with Iowa and improved their winning streak to nine straight matches.

After their swift defeat of the Hawkeyes, the script was flipped for the Nittany Lions on Saturday when they suffered their first Big Ten loss away at Nebraska.

The Cornhuskers, who are 9-0 in the conference and 18-0 overall, closed the chapter on Penn State’s win streak with a 3-0 sweep. It was the Nittany Lions’ first loss in over a month after they were defeated by Louisville on the road in September.

Penn State struggled to find the attack and hit just .117, a much lower percentage than usual. The key factor in that low hitting percentage was Nebraska libero Lexi Rodriguez who totaled 18 digs with 12 occurring in the first set alone.

Penn State’s defense was led by Gillian Grimes who had 15 digs along with Anjelina Starck and Maddy Bilinovic, but they were unable to keep Nebraska’s powerful offense at bay.

Nebraska now sits at No. 2 in the AVCA Poll and is tied with Wisconsin for the top spot in the Big Ten while Penn State remains second in conference standings.

The No. 11 Nittany Lions will return to Rec Hall for their next two matches. They are set to face Iowa again on Friday at 7 p.m. for their Team Impact Awareness Match, and Purdue on Sunday at 1 p.m. for their annual Dig Pink match dedicated to breast cancer awareness.

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