- 1 WVB TOPS NO. 9 WISCONSIN, 3-1
In a top-10 battle, No. 1 Penn State gets the best of No. 9 Wisconsin in Big Ten Action
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 1-ranked Penn State women’s volleyball team got the best in a battle with Ninth-ranked Wisconsin as the Nittany Lions took the match, 3-1; 25-19, 25-22, 23-25, 25-16, in Wednesday night Big Ten action in Rec Hall.
After jumping out to a 1-0 set lead, the Nittany Lions trailed Wisconsin, 16-9, late in the second set, and it seemed the two squads would head into the break tied at one set apiece.
Insert Nia Reed (Fort Lee, N.J.).
The redshirt junior outside came in to provide a spark for the Nittany Lions, and she delivered.
Reed put down eight kills, which alone was a career-high, on nine swings, including scoring the final six points for the Nittany Lions with five kills and a block, to help Penn State take the set, 25-22.
Reed finished the match with a career-high 11 kills in just two sets, at a clip of .421, adding one block.
The Nittany Lions also saw an impressive performance from senior middle blocker Haleigh Washington (Colorado Springs, Co.).
On her sixth block of the evening, Washington became the ninth Nittany Lion to reach 500 career blocks in Penn State history, and just the seventh in the record books to reach that mark along with the 1,000 career kills, which she reached last weekend against Indiana. Washington is now the only active Big Ten player to reach the 1,000/500 mark.
Washington finished the match with 14 kills, hitting .448, and added a game-high eight blocks.
Heidi Thelen (Edgewood, Ky.) provided another quality performance for Penn State, putting down seven kills on a .353 clip with five blocks.
Defensively, Kendall White (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the match with 21 digs, while Simone Lee (Menomonee Falls, Wis.) scooped up a career-high 18 digs. Lee also added eight kills and three blocks.
Penn State out-blocked the Badgers, 14.0-9.0, and out-hit the visiting team, .241-.207.
Wednesday night was the Nittany Lions ‘Dig Pink’ match, and the team surpassed their donation goal of $3,000. If fans are still interesting in donating to the Sideout Foundation, please check out the Nittany Lions’ campaign page: https://giving.side-out.org/campaigns/13597
The Nittany Lions hit the road to take on Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 28, for a 7 p.m. match.
