Almost a shocker for U volleyball at Penn State

This is what the Daily Collegian, Penn State's student paper wrote about Saturday's volleyball match between the Gophers and Penn State:

While a loss to the Gophers would shock the nation, Saturday's Big Ten showdown shouldn't be considered a cakewalk like some of the earlier season matches were.

As the No. 21 team in the nation, Minnesota has already picked up impressive victories on the road and have even cracked the rare feat of impressing Lions coach Rose.

"It's a good situation in some areas," Rose said after his team's performance against Wisconsin. "But we have to get a lot better because Minnesota is coming to town, and they just beat 10th-ranked Ohio [State] 3-0 in Ohio."

Actually the Gophers beat OSU 3-2 and almost did "shock the nation" on Saturday. After losing the first two sets in University Park, Pa., the Gophers won the next two and pushed the Nittany Lions in the fifth. The scores: Penn State won 25-22, 25-16, 19-25, 20-25, 15-10.

Penn State came into the match with a 32-match unbeaten streak and hadn't drop a set all season, 41 in a row they had won in a row going back to last year NCAA semifinals.

That set streak ended, but PSU won (13-0, 2-0) as nearly everyone expected. The Nittany Lions are the defending NCAA champions and a unanimous No. 1 in the latest coaches' poll.

Circle Nov. 14 on the calendar. That's when Penn State wil play the U at the Sports Pavilion.

In this match, the Gophers (9-3, 1-1) actually outhit PSU .216 to .198.

Penn State had more kills, 65-60, but the Gophers had more digs, 76-75, and more blocks, 13-11.

Daly Santana led the U in kills with 19, whle the Tapp twins combined for 27, 14 by Paige (along with nine blocks) and 13 by Hannah. Alyssa Groehner had 11 kills.

Samantha Seliger-Swenson had 52 assists; she's a freshman. And, as usualy, Dalianliz Rosado led in digs with 24.

In Set 1, it was 14-all before PSU went on a 4-0 run to take control.

In Set 2, PSU hit .273, the U .028. The Nittany Lions had leads of 19-9 and 24-13.

After the break, the Gophers came out and won Set 3. The Gophers had 13 kills and PSU had nine attack errors. Paige Tapp had a block to put the U up 20-15; Santana had a kill for set point.

Set 4 was tied at 17. But with the Gophers ahead 22-19, Santana had three kills in a row as the U won the set.

Set 5 was tied 9-9. PSU hit .346 in winning the match before just over 5,000 at Rec Hall.

This was PSU's 10th win in a row over the Gophers. Penn State leads the overall series 45-8 and is 24-3 vs. the Gophers at home. Megan Courtney, a senior outside hitter, led PSU with 22 kills, 13 digs and five blocks.