Penn State women’s volleyball to face Nebraska in NCAA regional match
Channel: information general
Date: 2016-12-09

Penn State women’s volleyball to face Nebraska in NCAA regional match

When it first lost to Nebraska this season, Penn State used the support of its fans and the confidence from being on its home court to take the Cornhuskers (29-2) to five sets. The second time the Nittany Lions (24-9) played the Huskers, the Huskers used their home-court advantage at the Devaney Center to defeat the Lions in straight sets.

However, on Friday at noon, the third time will hopefully be the charm.

“The opportunity to still be playing in this second weekend is an opportunity that’s available to a limited number of teams,” coach Russ Rose said. “We’re happy to still be playing and certainly have a challenging opponent in playing [the Huskers] at Nebraska. But, we played there a few weeks ago and we’re familiar with the facility and the quality of the opponent.”

This past week, the Lions have been preparing both physically and mentally for the NCAA regional match — a match which will be held in Lincoln, Nebraska. Though they feel trepidation, the Lions are excited to play on the complex’s main court, rather than just “off in a corner” of the Devaney center.

“I think overall, playing at [the Huskers] is really tough,” middle blocker Heidi Thelen said. “It’s a huge gym, there’s like 8,000 people in there and they’re all rooting against you. I think we learned that we really need to start off strong. We have to win the serve-pass game and, I think, if we all come out and play as a team and we play together I think we can do this.”

Thelen said because it’s now the NCAA tournament, she thinks more blue-and-white fans might make the trek to Lincoln. Defensive specialist Keeton Holcomb said she thinks the center’s size, not the amount of Lions’ fans who attend the match, is what makes playing in the center so difficult.

Rose said even though they only had a week to rearrange their schedules, Rose thinks the fan turnout will be good as he said all of the Big Ten schools hosting — even though the matches are at “odd hours,” said “these schools” have great fans and great followings and fans will be there.

“Every time we go there, it’s sold out,” Holcomb said. “And it’s fun. I think it’s fun. I’ve always enjoyed playing there, even though it’s super hard. And, like [Thelen] said, it’s like everyone’s there cheering against you. But, I think this time well have a little bit more fans there.”

In its last visit the Devaney Center, the Lions fell in straight sets a (17-25, 14-25, 22-25) to the Huskers. Thelen, who switched sides from left to right about halfway through the season, secured the first kill of the game and prompted a back-and-forth set at the end of which the Huskers managed to pull away.

While the second set against the Huskers left much to be desired, the Lions came back in the third — and final — set of the game and fought the Huskers to a 22-21 lead before dropping the next four points to lose the match.

“[The Huskers] are the defending national champions,” Rose said. “So, they’re especially confident at home. They are strong in each of the positions and I thought we played better in third game. We were up 22-21 in the third game, but that was just a teaser. I don’t think we played hard enough to close it out.”

This was contrary to the first game the Lions and the Huskers played in Rec Hall, as the Lions started out strong before having what Rose called a “complete mental breakdown” in the second set — a hole they couldn’t quite dig themselves out of as they lost the match in five sets (25-22, 17-25, 23-25, 25-23, 11-15).

Rose said he thinks the Huskers — who hold an 18-10 edge over the Lions and are similar to the Lions in that both teams have managed to make an appearance in all 36 NCAA tournaments and both teams have current players who have won national championships in the past three years — has different pressure than the Lions do, though both teams do have pressure on them to win. Rose said because the Lions have lost to the Huskers the past three times they’ve played each other, the Huskers are the No. 1 seed and they’re hosting the match, he thinks there’s bigger pressure to get to the regional match than win it.

“You never know who you’re going to play in an early round,” Rose said. “If they have some player who and goes off with 30 kills and send you home, it’s no different than the NCAA men’s basketball where upsets happen and you start looking at schools and the directional schools have players that are every bit as good as the blue bloods. So, the emotion I would hope our kids are pumped and excited and go out there and play as hard as they can.”