The University of Minnesota volleyball team (12-4, 5-1) dropped a three-game match at No. 3 Penn State (14-2, 6-0) by scores of 30-16, 30-25, 30-26 at Rec Hall on Saturday, Oct. 6. With the loss, the Golden Gophers had an 11-match Big Ten winning streak that dated back to the end of the 2006 season.
Freshman Lauren Gibbemeyer (St. Paul, Minn.) led the way with nine kills and two blocks in the match. Junior Kyla Roehrig (Papillion, Neb.) had seven kills and two blocks, while Brook Dieter (Bloomington, Minn.) tallied six kills.
Junior setter Rachel Hartmann (St. Charles, Ill.) had 25 assists, four blocks and five digs. Christine Tan (Safety Harbor, Fla.) finished with nine digs and an assists.
Minnesota was without Jessy Jones who sat out with an ankle injury for a second match in a row.
Penn State outhit Minnesota .264 to .072, and had 55 kills to 30 for the Golden Gophers. The Nittany Lions also outblocked Minnesota 12.0-to-8.0 on the night.
Minnesota did force the Nittany Lions into 27 errors, while committing 23 of its own.
Penn State jumped out to a 5-0 lead in game one, before Gibbemeyer delivered a kill and got the next point on a Nittany Lion attack error. Five of the next six points were scored by Penn State to give the Nittany Lions a 10-3 lead. Penn State pushed the lead out to 18-8, before Hartmann dumped over a kill and Dieter had a service ace to make it 18-10.
Minnesota cut it to 20-13 after back-to-back kills by Roehrig. However, Penn State scored nine of the next 11 points to make it game point at 29-15, Gibbemeyer delivered a kill to cut it to 29-16. Penn State finished off the game on the next point to up 1-0 in the match.
The Nittany Lions outhit Minnesota .482 to .000, and 18 kills to eight. Penn State also outblocked the Golden Gophers 4.5-to-1.0. Gibbemeyer led Minnesota with three kills in the game.
Minnesota jumped out to a 3-1 lead in game two, but Penn State scored 13 of the next 16 points to take a 14-6 lead. The Nittany Lions moved their lead out to 16-8, but the Golden Gophers responded with 11 of the next 14 points tying the game at 19 when Katie Vatterrodt (Bloomington, Ill.) and Kelly Schmidt (Champaign, Ill.) combined on a block.
After a Penn State point, Vatterrodt delivered another kill to tie it at 20. The Nittany Lions committed an error to give Minnesota a 21-20 lead. Penn State answered with seven of the next nine points to move ahead 27-23. The Golden Gophers cut it to 28-25, but Penn State rattled off the final two points to take the second game 30-25.
The Nittany Lions outhit Minnesota .175 to .083 in the second game, and had 19 kills to 12 for the Golden Gophers. Minnesota forced Penn State into 12 attack errors in the game, and was narrowly outblocked 6.0-to-5.0 in the second game. Roehrig led the Golden Gophers with four kills in the game.
In the third game the two teams were tied at four, before Penn State went on a 8-1 run to take a 12-5 lead. Minnesota answered by ripping off 10 of the next 13 points, and tied the game on a service ace by Gibbemeyer to make it 15-15. Penn State scored six of the next eight points to take a 21-17 lead. The Golden Gophers cut it to 22-20 on a Rachelle Hagerty (Defiance, Ohio.) kill. After the Nittany Lions went up 25-22, Gibbemeyer delivered a kill to cut it to 25-23.
Penn State scored the next two points to move it out to 27-23, and moved on to a 30-26 game-three victory to close out the match.
Nicole Fawcett led Penn State with 23 kills and five blocks, despite 11 errors on the night. Megan Hodge had 14 kills and 11 digs on the night. Setter Alisha Glass had 46 assists and four blocks, while Roberta Holehouse had a match-high 13 digs.
Minnesota will be back in action on Friday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. when it faces No. 9 Wisconsin at the Sports Pavilion. The Golden Gophers will also face Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m.
