Penn State women’s volleyball spooked in Halloween Match loss to Illinois

Most people celebrate Halloween by going to costume parties or knocking on neighbors’ doors in hopes of achieving a king-sized candy bar.

Penn State women’s volleyball, though, observed the late October holiday by hosting two Big Ten foes at Rec Hall for its annual THON/Alumni Night and Halloween Match on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

The Nittany Lions defeated Maryland in straight sets Friday before a more competitive 3-1 loss to Illinois the next day. Both opponents were unranked coming into the matchups.

Penn State’s weekend started with its sweep over the Terrapins, which was highlighted by a dominant 25-10 win in the second set. Senior right-side hitter Jonni Parker led the way with 13 kills on a .286 hitting percentage throughout the match.

In the early goings of the second match of the weekend, it looked like the Nittany Lions were about to repeat their performance from the night earlier. Penn State won the first set 25-20 over the Fighting Illini to pull ahead.

That, however, was about where the positives ended for Russ Rose’s group.

The Nittany Lions would go on to lose the remaining three sets to fall to Illinois for the first time since a five-set loss to the team from Champaign in 2018. Penn State had built up a four-match winning streak over the Illini since that loss.

Even though the blue and white didn’t lose a single set by more than three points, Rose wasn’t impressed by his team’s play in the midafternoon home match.

“I thought a couple of our kids played hard, but I don’t know if I’d say they played well,” Rose said.

The final three sets — all Illinois wins — finished by scores of 25-23, 27-25 and 25-22. Penn State had a 20-16 lead in the second set before ultimately dropping it.

Specifically, Rose cited service errors as a primary reason why Penn State’s momentum was stunted as quickly as it started.

“If you’re making seven or eight errors per game, you’re going to have a hard time winning,” Rose said. “I mean, certainly we had opportunities.”

The Nittany Lions totaled 12 service errors throughout the match, double that of Illinois’ six such errors.

As they move through the remaining eight regular-season matches, Parker and her teammates don’t want to let losses like these become common in a competitive Big Ten conference.

“We can’t let one become two,” Parker said. “We learned from the play we had right there, and we’ll hold ourselves responsible and accountable for what we can control.”

Penn State has lost two straight matches just once this season, in its appearance at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge when it took on then-No. 11 Oregon and No. 14 Stanford. In their three post-loss matches since, the Nittany Lions have outscored opponents 9-1.

Senior middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord, who registered 16 kills on a .625 hitting percentage and just one error, was struck by Illinois’ ability from the baseline.

“I think they are really good servers,” Hord said. “I think serving and blocking is really what kept them in the match.”

The Illini had eight service aces in the match compared to Penn State’s five. In terms of blocking, Illinois tallied nine while the Nittany Lions picked up seven of their own.

After Illinois completed the upset victory, its bench rushed the court and huddled in jubilation for their own iteration of “Happy Valley.” The win helped move the Illini to 16-7 on the year.

Penn State, on the other hand, is now 15-7 as it heads into a home series against Michigan and Michigan State next weekend. The Nittany Lions will celebrate Faculty/Staff Night against the Wolverines and will have its annual Silent Set against the Spartans.

“I’m certainly disappointed, but I also recognize that everybody in the Big Ten is good,” Rose said. “You could tell by Illinois’ celebration that it meant a lot to them.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2021 at 8:31 PM.