OSU 3, PSU 0/story/box

[weaver]

No. 23 Ohio State Upsets No. 3 Penn State, 3-0
Ohio State's Danielle Meyer has a team-high 17 points in the upset.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The 23rd ranked Ohio State (18-7, 9-7 Big Ten) women's volleyball team upset third-ranked Penn State (24-2, 13-2), 3-0 (30-19, 30-26, 30-21) Wednesday night in front of 2,569 fans. OSU's Danielle Meyer (Jr., Cincinnati, Ohio) scored a team-high 17 points with Anna Szerszen (Fr., Conflans Ste Hne, France) adding 15.5 and Ami Stevens (Jr., Centerburg, Ohio) 10. Meyer had 13 kills, an ace serve, a solo block and four assists in the match. Szerszen recorded a team-high 15 kills and an assist block while Stevens had six kills, two ace serves, a solo block and two assists. Penn State's Megan Hodge recorded a match-high 19 points for the Nittany Lions with Nicole Fawcett adding 12. Hodge posted a match-high 19 kills while Fawcett had 11 kills and two assist blocks.

Two Penn State errors and an ace serve by Ashley Kiel (Sr., Allenton, Wis.) opened game one giving Ohio State a 3-0 lead. The Nittany Lions closed to within one at 5-4. OSU scored three straight points with a Marisa Main (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) kill, a Szerszen-Felicia Jones (Sr., Concord, Ont.) block and a second Main kill to lead 8-4. With Penn State trailing 11-6, a Melissa Walbridge kill and an OSU error cut the margin to three at 11-8. The Buckeyes then scored six straight points to take a 17-8 lead. The run contained a Kiel ace serve, a Meyer-Stevens block and a Briana McCarthy (Sr., Beaver Dam, Wis.) kill and three Penn State errors. The Nittany Lions would come no closer than seven points the rest of the game and trailed 27-19 when a McCarthy kill and solo blocks by Main and Meyer ended the game at 30-19. Ohio State hit .208 in the game to .000 for Penn State.

With the score tied 6-6 in game two, a Buckeye error and Penn State blocks by Alisha Glass-Christa Harmotto and Fawcett-Harmotto gave Penn State a 9-6 lead. Trailing 10-7, Ohio State used three Szerszen kills and two from Stevens to take a 12-10 lead. At 15-13, OSU, a 5-1 Penn State run put the Nittany Lions ahead, 18-16 with three Hodge kills, one kill from Glass and a Glass-Harmotto block. Buckeye kills from Main and McCarthy and a Penn State error gave OSU a 19-18 lead. Nittany Lion kills from Harmotto and Hodge gave Penn State a 20-19 lead. Three Penn State errors put Ohio State ahead, 22-20. A Fawcett kill and an OSU error tied the game at 22. A kill from Jones and a Penn State error made it 24-22, OSU. Two Penn State errors and Nittany Lion kills from Walbridge and Hodge put the score at 26-24, Buckeyes. Ohio State took the lead to 28-24 with kills from Szerszen and Main. A Hodge kill made it 28-25. Meyer set game point with a kill at 29-25. Another Hodge kill stopped the game point at 29-26. The Buckeyes closed out the game with a kill from Main for a 30-26 win to lead the match, 2-0. Ohio State hit .240 for the game to .207 for Penn State.

Game three started with eight ties to reach 9-9. Ohio State took an 11-9 lead with two Szerszen kills. Glass countered with a kill to make it 11-10. A Penn State error, a Meyer-McCarthy block and a Meyer kill gave the Buckeyes a 14-10 lead. A solo block by Fawcett made it 14-11. A Szerszen kill took the lead to 15-11. Penn State, with two kills by Hodge and one from Walbridge, trailed by one at 15-14. Two Penn State errors, Buckeye kills from Meyer and Stevens and a Stevens’s ace serve opened a six-point lead for Ohio State at 20-14. At 21-15, a Cassy Salyer-Harmotto block and a Hodge kill cut the Ohio State lead to four at 21-17. The Buckeyes, with two Szerszen kills, a Main ace serve and a Penn State error took an eight-point lead at 25-17. A Hodge kill cut the margin to 25-18. Two Szerszen kills and errors by both teams made it 28-19. A Buckeye error made the lead eight at 28-20. A kill from Stevens set match point at 29-20. Fawcett, with a kill, stopped the match point at 29-21. Meyer ended the game with a kill for a 30-21 game win and a 3-0 victory for the Buckeyes. Ohio State hit .429 in the game to .244. OSU's Szerszen had 10 of OSU's 19 kills in the game.

Ohio State hit .294 for the match to .161 for Penn State. The Buckeyes had a 47-45 edge in kills and a six to zero margin in ace serves. The Nittany Lions gave up 11 service errors to three for Ohio State. Defensively, the Buckeyes had a 54-37 advantage in digs while Penn State's Hodge had a match-high 13. At the net, the Buckeye had a nine to 7.5 edge in team blocking. OSU's Meyer (one solo, four assists) and Penn State's Harmotto (five assists) shared match-high honors the five blocks each. Penn State's Glass recorded a match-high 38 assists in the match while OSU's Main recorded 35.

Ohio State continues at home the Friday when they host Iowa (13-13, 2-12) at 7 p.m. in St. John Arena.


Volleyball Box Score
2006 Ohio State Women's Volleyball
#3 Penn State vs #23 Ohio State (Nov 8, 2006 at Columbus, Ohio)

Penn State | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Fawcett, Nicole..... 3| 11 6 37 .135| 0| 0 4| 0| 2| 0 2 0| 0| 12.0
2 Walbridge, Melissa.. 3| 4 3 12 .083| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 1 1 0| 0| 5.5
3 Harmotto, Christa... 3| 3 3 14 .000| 0| 0 2| 1| 1| 0 5 1| 0| 5.5
6 Glass, Alisha....... 3| 5 3 9 .222| 38| 0 2| 0| 4| 0 3 0| 0| 6.5
11 Hodge, Megan........ 3| 19 6 51 .255| 0| 0 1| 0| 13| 0 0 0| 0| 19.0
14 Salyer, Cassy....... 3| 3 2 13 .077| 0| 0 0| 0| 3| 0 2 0| 0| 4.0
4 Holehouse, Roberta.. 3| 0 0 1 .000| 1| 0 2| 2| 10| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
5 Brown, Kris......... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 4| 0 0| 0| 2| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
12 Yanz, Jessica....... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
16 Price, Kate......... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 3| 1| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
17 Naylor, Ann......... 1| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 3| 45 23 137 .161| 43| 0 11| 6| 37| 1 13 1| 0| 52.5

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.5
Game K E TA Pct
1 12 12 38 .000 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS
2 17 5 58 .207 Penn State.......... (0) 19 26 21 24-2, Big Ten 13-2
3 16 6 41 .244 Ohio State.......... (3) 30 30 30 18-7, Big Ten 8-7

Ohio State | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN
## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE|POINTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 Meyer, Danielle..... 3| 13 1 18 .667| 2| 1 1| 0| 5| 1 4 0| 0| 17.0
7 Stevens, Ami........ 3| 6 2 17 .235| 2| 2 0| 0| 10| 1 2 1| 1| 10.0
8 McCarthy, Briana.... 3| 3 1 12 .167| 1| 0 0| 0| 7| 0 2 0| 0| 4.0
9 Jones, Felicia...... 3| 4 0 10 .400| 0| 0 0| 0| 3| 0 1 0| 0| 4.5
13 Main, Marisa........ 3| 6 2 9 .444| 35| 1 0| 0| 6| 2 0 0| 0| 9.0
14 Szerszen, Anna...... 3| 15 9 43 .140| 0| 0 1| 0| 8| 0 1 0| 0| 15.5
3 Tengnas, Anna....... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 2| 0 0| 0| 9| 0 0 0| 0| 0.0
15 Kiel, Ashley........ 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 2 1| 0| 6| 0 0 0| 0| 2.0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Totals.............. 3| 47 15 109 .294| 42| 6 3| 0| 54| 4 10 1| 1| 62.0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 9.0
Game K E TA Pct
1 9 4 24 .208 Site: Columbus, Ohio (St. John Arena)
2 19 7 50 .240 Date: Nov 8, 2006 Attend: 2569 Time: 1:24
3 19 4 35 .429 Referees: Brian Hemelgarn, Mike Paull

[vballmaniac40]

How did they hold Walbridge, Harmotto and Salyer all under .100%? Passing must have been awful.

[bigtenfred]

Passing is going to kill them

[cbrown1709]

Sounds like Glass had a bad match.

[BOTE]

For all those PSU hitters to hit just awful the setting and the passing had to be really off. Appears that the younger players have a tough time adjusting to the pressures and toughness of the road. With the exception of Hodge and Glass this is the same team as last year only a year older. If you lose a three time All-American in Tortorello and Big Ten POY and BigTen defensive player of the year your offense can go downhill real quick without the skills and LEADERSHIP they brought to Penn State. The blocking, serving and overall play of Penn State can't be put just on on the freshmen. Penn State needs to look in the mirror and regain some of that swagger they have had in years past. Kudos to the Buckeyes for a great win in conference and the toughness they displayed in defending their home court. This makes the conference race really interesting for the remainder of this season.

[foreignball]

I do not want to generalize too early but it seems to me PSU always starts very stong and slows down towards the end of the season....do they peak too early or something else I do not know.

[maninyellowhat]

When Hodge was in serve receive did she stand there with her hand on her hip like she did when they played in Minnesota?

[VolleyTX]

Anyone who saw the match, can you comment on what happened to PSU? Was it passing? Setting? Everyone have an off night? Or some of all the above?

Danielle Meyer might be a player that the National team could use. She does EVERYTHING pretty well. She can hit slides, hit out of the back row, hit from the right or left sides, primary passer, plays good defense, sees the court very well, and is competitive as hell! She could probably play just about any position for Ohio State except setter. Maybe this is the type of player USA volleyball should be trying to develop further.

[maninyellowhat]

So Stevens is not the Libero anymore? Who is?

[stberry50]

maninyellowhat said:

When Hodge was in serve receive did she stand there with her hand on her hip like she did when they played in Minnesota?

I am glad someone else has noticed this. I know different athletes have different methods of preparing for a play, but her body position/language appears lazy.

[ugopher]

What surprises me the most were the scores. At face value, it looks like PSU was never in the match.

[spikerthemovie]

This was a point I was trying to make earlier, in a different thread, about Hodge. She's an astonishing athlete and she's obviously going to be an even better one but, as many points as she makes for her team on offense, she loses tons of them on defense with shockingly bad passes. I don't get why Penn State continues to play her through the whole rotation.

[miamiink]

That's a really great point. Is Fawcett that poor of a passer that they wouldn't even keep in her in the entire rotation? She was bombing at Open Nationals from the backrow and is a way better attacker than Hodge.

spikethemovie said:

This was a point I was trying to make earlier, in a different thread, about Hodge. She's an astonishing athlete and she's obviously going to be an even better one but, as many points as she makes for her team on offense, she loses tons of them on defense with shockingly bad passes. I don't get why Penn State continues to play her through the whole rotation.

[Deleted]

Maybe this was the promise made to MH to get her to PSU? Does this happen? She mentioned in an article that she _specifically_ chose PSU because they develop all-around players.

By the way, I would caution about reading too much into body language. It's a mistake we all make with athletes -- and coaches (not to mention people in general).

[ohiostatetad]

ugopher said:

What surprises me the most were the scores. At face value, it looks like PSU was never in the match.

They weren't. First of all, the atmosphere in the arena was the same when OSU upset #1 Minnesota 2 years ago. One of those intangibles that sports fans can just "feel." In warmups, the Buckeyes were hitting hard, serving hard and digging hard. PSU seriously looked as though they were going to phone it in ("Success Syndrome" rather than bad attitudes. After all, they dispensed w/ OSU in HV). I hadn't been able to see the Lions live since their 2004 win in Columbus, so I was really looking forward to seeing this team. Secondly, when Fawcett opened G1 with a service error, I felt it-- right then. And most of OSU's blocks were in G1, so PSU had plenty of time to readjust.

volleytx said:

Anyone who saw the match, can you comment on what happened to PSU? Was it passing? Setting? Everyone have an off night? Or some of all the above?

Again, your mind won't let you believe that OSU was far superior last night. PSU didn't beat themselves; they were soundly thrashed by the Buckeyes. Ask anyone who was there. How about this: OSU **finally** found the positioning and rotations that would suit them best. Yes, I understand a team that lost twice in the B10 in the muthafriggin' state of Illinois surprises VolleyTalk with such scores here. Believe me, my head was swimming after G2, and I tried to wake myself up! ;D

maninyellowhat said:

So Stevens is not the Libero anymore? Who is?

Ashley Keil is. She was pretty good last night, but they used Anna Tengnas (her best game ever!) and Ami a lot back there-- hence, the high # of digs from them.