The No. 7 University of Minnesota volleyball team defeated No. 4 Penn State in straight sets. In front of a sold out 5,450 crowd, the Golden Gophers won, 25-22, 25-21, 25-19. The Maroon and Gold are now 7-2 overall and started Big Ten action with a win. Penn State drops to 9-2 overall and is 0-1 in Big Ten play.
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Stephanie Samedy led the team with 14 kills, 40 attempts, a team-best five blocks and added a double-double with 10 digs. Adanna Rollins followed with 13 kills and 11 digs for her first career double-double, and hit .303. The third and final double-double belonged to Samantha Seliger-Swenson, who had 40 assists and a team-best 16 digs. Minnesota had five individuals with double-digit digs. Along with the three double-doubles, Lauren Barnes had 13 digs, while CC McGraw had 12.
She led the team with 14 kills and added 10 digs, hear from @StephanieSamedy on tonight's #Gopher sweep! pic.twitter.com/8Kx80U0Sr7
— Minnesota Volleyball (@GopherVBall) September 20, 2018
The Gophers outhit Penn State .262 to .168, and had a 50-38 kill advantage. The Nittany Lions put up 58 digs to Minnesota's 71, and the Gophers also held a 9-5.5 block lead.
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The Gophers are back in action Saturday night when they host the Maryland Terrapins, 6:30 p.m., at Maturi Pavilion. The match will be streamed on BTN Plus.
Set Breakdown:
Set 1: Minnesota used a 6-0 run towards the end of the set to win, 25-22. The two teams traded points through 7-7 before PSU went up, 9-7 off a kill. PSU went up, 11-8 off a kill, but Minnesota responded with a kill from Morgan, a block by Morgan and Rollins and an ace by Barnes to tie up the set at 11-11. Minnesota later took a 15-13 lead off a Rollins kill, however PSU tied up the set on a block for the ninth tie of the set. PSU took an 18-16 lead as the Gophers called a timeout. Following the timeout, Minnesota went on a 5-0 run and a 22-19 lead capped off by a Morgan/Samedy block. It forced PSU to call a timeout. After a Samedy kill and a 23-19 lead, PSU cut the Gopher lead to two, 23-21, but Minnesota was able to finish off the set with a block from Hart/Morgan and a Morgan kill to go up, 1-0.
Point U!!! pic.twitter.com/EoS408uTbr
— Minnesota Volleyball (@GopherVBall) September 20, 2018
Set 2: Minnesota held Penn State to its lowest set hitting clip of the season at .081 to win 25-21. Tied at 12-12, Minnesota went on a 3-0 run and a 15-12 lead off a Pittman kill, a Samedy/Pittman block and a Samedy kill. The Gophers later took a 20-17 lead off a PSU attack errors as the Nittany Lions called a timeout. Minnesota later took a 22-18 kill after Hart earned a kill off the block attempt. PSU battled back and cut the Gophers lead to two at 23-21 as Minnesota called a timeout. The Gophers responded with two-straight on kills from Morgan and Rollins to take a 2-0 lead.
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Set 3: The Gophers hit .366 in the set to win, 25-19 and take the match. Minnesota jumped out to a 9-2 lead in the third set. Morgan pushed the score to 13-8 with a kill. Back-to-back kills from Samedy pushed the score to 17-10 as PSU called a timeout. The Nittany Lions responded with a 4-1 run and cut the Gopher lead to 18-14 as Minnesota called a timeout. Minnesota went up, 21-16 off a Hart kill, as Pittman pushed it to match point at 24-16. The Gophers closed out the match on another kill from Pittman to win, 3-0.
