COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio State (17-7 overall, 5-6 Big Ten) women's volleyball team dropped a 3-0 (25-21, 25-11, 25-20) decision to top-ranked Penn State (23-0, 11-0) Wednesday night in Rec Hall. OSU's Katie Dull posted a team-high 12 points in the match with 11 kills and two assist blocks. Penn State's Megan Hodge recorded a match-high 19 points with 17 kills, one ace serve and two assist blocks.
Set one saw the Nittany Lions open a 2-0 lead with a Darcy Dorton-Fatima Balza block and a Blair Brown kill. Buckeye kills from Kristen Dozier and Kelli Barhorst tied the set at two. Penn State kills from Brown and Dorton made it 4-2. At 6-4, kills from Brown and Hodge gave the Nittany Lions an 8-4 lead. Trailing, 12-8, a Penn State error and a Barhorst kill cut the lead to 12-10. The score moved to 13-11 with kills from Dorton and Dull. Ohio State tied the set at 13 with a kill from Dull and a PSU error. The Nittany Lions responded with a kill from Brown, an OSU error and two ace serves from Cathy Quilico to open a 17-13 lead. At 23-19, a Dull kill cut the lead to three at 23-20. The Nittany Lions reached set point at 24-20 with a kill from Dorton. Barhorst stopped the set point with a kill at 24-21. Penn State won the set, 25-21, with a Brown kill to take a 1-0 lead in the match. The Nittany Lions hit .429 for the set to .278 for Ohio State.
Penn State opened set two with a Brown kill and two ace serves from Alyssa D'Errico for a 3-0 lead. A Dull kill made it 3-1. Brown, with a kill and an ace serve, took the lead to 5-1. A Chelsea Noble kill made it 5-2. A Arielle Wilson kill and a PSU error made it 6-3. The Nittany Lions opened up a 9-3 lead with a kill from Alisha Glass and two from Hodge. Penn State expanded the lead to reach set point, 24-10, off a Buckeye error. A kill from Dull stopped the set point at 24-11. A Buckeye error ended the set for a 25-11 Penn State win to give the Nittany Lions a 2-0 lead in the match. Penn State hit .391 for the set to .037 for the Buckeyes.
A Barhorst kill gave Ohio State a 1-0 lead in set three. Two Brown kills and a Penn State error tied the set at two. At three-all, an OSU error and a Dorton kill gave Penn State a 5-3 lead. An Anna Szerszen kill and a Buckeye error made it 6-4. Ohio State tied the set at six with an Ashley Hughes kill and a Dull-Barhorst block. Kills from Brown and Barhorst made it seven-all. A Barhorst-Dull block gave OSU an 8-7 lead. Dorton, with a kill, tied the set at eight. A Penn State error and a Hodge kill tied the set at nine. OSU took a 10-9 lead with an Emily Danks kill. Two Hodge kills, one from Wilson and an ace serve from Brown gave Penn State a 13-10 lead. A Penn State error and a kill from Glass made it 14-11. An Allie Schwarzwalder kill and one from Dorton moved the score to 15-12. Two Penn State errors, a Noble ace serve and a Barhorst kill gave Ohio State a 16-15 lead. An OSU error tied the set at 16. Kills from Dorton and Dull made it 17-all. A Hodge kill and a Penn State error tied the set at 18. A Buckeye error and a Barhorst kill tied the set at 19. A Hodge kill and a PSU error made it 20-all. Two Buckeye errors and kills from Hodge and Wilson made it match point at 24-20. Penn State won the set, 25-20, with a Dorton kill to win the match, 3-0. The Nittany Lions hit .234 to .167 for Ohio State.
For the match, Penn State hit .333 to .171 for Ohio State. The Nittany Lions had a 48-32 advantage in kills and a nine-to-two margin in ace serves. PSU's Quilico posted a match-high four ace serves. Penn State gave up five service errors to two for the Buckeyes. Defensively, the Nittany Lions had a 45-36 advantage in digs. D'Errico posted a match-high 13 digs for Penn State with OSU's Noble recording a team-high 10. At the net, the Nittany Lions had a seven-to-four margin in team blocks. Balza (three assist blocks) and Wilson (one solo, two assist blocks) shared match-high honors with three total blocks each. At setter, Glass recorded 40 assists for Penn State while Hughes had 21 for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State returns home at 7 p.m. Saturday to host seventh-ranked Minnesota (17-5, 8-2) in St. John Arena.
### OhioStateBuckeyes.com ###
