WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

Penn State ties Wooden's Bruins with 88th straight win

Penn State ties Wooden's Bruins with 88th straight win

Gordon Brunskill

UNIVERSITY PARK — When your team is now getting compared to the UCLA men's basketball squads of the early 1970s, you must be pretty good.

CDT/Christopher Weddle

Penn State's Megan Hodge jumps for a block as Minnesota's Megan Wilson goes for a kill at Rec Hall on Friday, October 30, 2009. CDT/Christopher Weddle

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The Penn State women’s volleyball team hit another major milestone Friday night at Rec Hall, even if it’s not an official record.

The two-time defending national champion Nittany Lions joined those John Wooden-coached Bruins with their 88th consecutive victory after sweeping No. 7 Minnesota 25-14, 25-16, 25-17.

“If you’re in coaching and your name is in a conversation, and John Wooden’s name is in the conversation,” head coach Russ Rose said, “you pinch yourself.”

The streak, which dates back to a five-set loss to Stanford on Sept. 15, 2007, matches the 1971-74 Bruins among the longest NCAA Division I runs. Within reach is the North Carolina women’s soccer team’s 92-game win streak from the Mia Hamm days in the 1990s. The best all-time stretch is the 137-match win streak by the Miami men’s tennis team.

The top-ranked Nittany Lions (24-0, 12- 0 Big Ten), however, have been paying little attention to these accomplishments. Junior libero Alyssa D’Errico was quizzed about it at a booster club get-together earlier in the day and she had no idea what the number was.

“I know we haven’t lost,” D’Errico said, with teammate Cathy Quillico knocking on the wooden table. “That’s the one thing that I do know. It’s match-to-match. I just know the next team that we play is the one that matters.”

The win featured standout performances above the net by Megan Hodge and in the back row by D’Errico and Quillico.

Hodge rocked in 19 kills — just five more than the entire Golden Gopher team.

“That pretty much says that she was the best player on the floor this evening,” Rose said of the three-time All-American, who was followed by eight kills each from Darcy Dorton and Blair Brown.

Hodge had an array of spikes down the line and cross-court, with soft tips, hard blasts and even a couple at tight angles well inside the 10-foot line, and registered just short of half of the team’s 40 kills and 35 of their 82 total swings to hit .429.

“I don’t like the idea of having to set her so much, for having one player to have almost 50 percent of our kills,” Rose said, “but she was by far the best player and she was playing very well. It made sense to set her. She was due.”

She was playing so well that at one point during the match, after Hodge had drilled the ball into the floor over a pair of Gopher blockers, D’Errico said to Quillico, “She makes it look easy.

“At some points in the game, it was just like, ‘Set Megan the ball,’” D’Errico said. “You know it’s going to be a kill. We have so much confidence, if we do our job in the back row, the ball gets set to her, we’re going to end up winning the game at some point.”

D’Errico and Quillico had their own contributions to the highlight reels, with each making several diving saves to set up the offense. Quillico led everyone with 12 digs and D’Errico added nine.

“Our coaches take a lot of credit for this,” D’Errico said. “They tell us where to go, they tell us what the tendencies are of the hitters and our block definitely does a great job of funneling the ball to Cathy and I.”

That defense, and a 9-7 advantage in blocks led by Arielle Wilson’s six, helped force Minnesota into 23 hitting errors and a .011 hitting night.

“We played really a scrappy defensive style that enabled us to keep some balls in play,” Rose said, “and I think maybe frustrated Minnesota a little bit. It transferred into we got a few runs, got some points and got some things going.”

Lauren Gibbemeyer’s six kills led the No. 7 Gophers (17-6, 8-3), who must finish the season without Brook Dieter. The second-team All-American, who was leading the team and third in the Big Ten at 3.94 kills per set, left the program about two weeks ago for personal reasons.

Notes: Along with 88 straight wins overall, Penn State has won 68 straight at home and 56 in a row in the Big Ten. During the 88-match run, the Nittany Lions have dropped just 14 sets, winning 94 percent of the frames. … Penn State hit .341 for the night. … The team has its first Saturday off all season and does not play again until traveling to Wisconsin next Friday. … With the match on Halloween weekend, many among the 3,512 in attendance showed up in costume.