Iowa Falls to Defending National Champion No. 3 Penn State

Oct. 4, 2014

Box Score

IOWA CITY, Iowa — No. 3-ranked Penn State (15-2, 3-1) defeated the University of Iowa volleyball team, 3-0, on Mediacom Court in Carver-Hawkeye Arena Saturday night. The defending national champion Nittany Lions never trailed in the match. With the loss, the Hawkeyes drop to 8-7 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten action.

“Playing a team like Penn State requires you to be nearly flawless and our group looked a little timid early on in the match,” head coach Bond Shymansky said. “Toward the end we started to hit our stride, but being the reigning national champion, they played like a championship caliber team. We did not show the will power to match them, so that is really something that we are going to work to bolster within our program and within our team.

“We’re getting a lot of contribution out of a lot of our players, and we are continuing to try to find the right lineup that is going to compete hard for us all the way through the end of a match. There weren’t a lot of individual standouts tonight for us in that kind of match and we needed it to be a great group effort. We just did not get it out of our bunch.”

Penn State posted a .312 hitting percentage in its 25-15 set one win. Lauren Brobst led the Hawkeye offense with six kills and a .667 hitting percentage, while Alessandra Dietz contributed three kills and hit .500, but the Nittany Lions limited the Hawkeye offense to an overall .185 hitting percentage in the set.

The Nittany Lions continued to be dominant in the second set, compiling a .423 attack percentage compared to Iowa’s .150. Penn State took a lead early and never gave it up en route to its 25-14 set two win. The Hawkeyes recorded just six kills in the set, including two apiece from Alex Lovell and Brobst.

Penn State kept the momentum in the third set, playing to a 25-11 victory and completing the 3-0 sweep of the Hawkeyes. The Nittany Lions continued their offensive dominance with a .407 attack percentage in the set, while limiting Iowa to a .050 percentage.

Brobst and Dietz each posted six kills to lead Iowa, while Kaylee Smith dished out a team-high 17 assists. Michelle Fugarino led the back line with seven digs. Brobst and Emily Yanny paced the blocking effort with three apiece.

Iowa resumes Big Ten play on the road next weekend, Oct. 10-11. The Hawkeyes face Michigan on Friday and Michigan State on Saturday. Both matches start at 6 p.m. (CT).