WVU Drops Opener to No. 9 Penn State

Friday, August 26

State College, Pa.

7:00 p.m.

West Virginia University

0-1

Penn State

1-0

Team	1	2	3	Final F
West Virginia	13	13	17	0
Penn State	25	25	25	3

Caffrey-Main-082616.jpg

August 26, 2016 09:45 PM | Volleyball

Box Score

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa - Outside hitter Payton Caffrey led the team with 18 kills in her collegiate debut as the West Virginia University volleyball team dropped its season-opening match to No. 9-ranked Penn State, 3-0, on Friday evening at Rec Hall in University Park, Pennsylvania. The Mountaineers fell to the Nittany Lions in set scores of 25-13, 25-13 and 25-17.

The freshman from Chuluota, Florida, also hit a team-best .405 in the match to go along with three digs. Senior Haley Roe and freshman Erin Slinde split time at setter, registering 13 and eight assists, respectively. Junior Mia Swanegan and senior Hannah Shreve each recorded a trio of kills on the night.

Freshman Natania Levak led the blocking effort with three block assists, teaming with Shreve on a pair of stops. Swanegan also contributed a pair of block assists and junior Gianna Gotterba had 11 of WVU's 24 digs.

The Mountaineers hit .119 with 27 kills, 25 assists and 4.0 team blocks in the loss.

“While it wasn't the outcome we wanted, it was a good experience for our team,” said coach Reed Sunahara. “We had a lot of freshman see the court tonight. I thought we played a lot better in the third set after everyone settled down. Now we just take what we've learned and prepare for Saturday.”

Caffrey was a bright spot for the Mountaineers in set one, hitting .500 with seven kills as West Virginia hit .080 as a team. The Nittany Lions scored eight of the first 10 points of the set before a kill from Caffrey made it 8-3. Caffrey continued her stellar play, but the Mountaineers couldn't find any momentum as Penn State rattled off three in a row to claim the set, 25-13.

Things didn't get any easier in the second set for West Virginia as Penn State withstood a Mountaineer timeout to race to a 7-2 lead. It was again Caffrey who ended the run, scoring a kill from Gotterba. Levak added a kill to cut the deficit to four down 8-4, but a four-point run pushed the Nittany Lions ahead 12-5. After the teams traded service errors, Slinde found the court for the Mountaineers to make it 17-8 in favor of Penn State. Caffrey added three more kills to her tally, but the Nittany Lions again put up three in a row to take the set, 25-13, for a 2-0 lead.

The Mountaineers' attacking improved in set three as the team hit .212 with 12 kills. Slinde and Swanegan combined for an early block to put WVU up 4-3 in the third set, but the Nittany Lions came back to score seven of the next eight points for a 10-5 lead. Consecutive kills from Caffrey and Shreve brought the Mountaineers within two, down 11-9. Caffrey added two more kills to her tally to keep WVU close and a block from Swanegan and Levak brought WVU within five of Penn State, down 17-12. Swanegan notched back-to-back kills to make it a four-point deficit at 18-14, but it wasn't enough as Penn State capitalized on a trio of WVU errors to win the set, 25-17, and take the match 3-0.

West Virginia returns to the Penn State Classic at Rec Hall on Saturday to face No. 19 North Carolina in a 1 p.m. match before closing things out against Georgia Southern at 4:30 p.m.