No. 4 Penn State Claws Its Way Past No. 12 Duke

Nittany Lions on track to win their fourth consecutive NCAA title

By: Megan Hovey

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- No. 4 Penn State women’s volleyball (30-5) continued its NCAA Tournament dominance over No. 12 Duke (27-7) on Thursday, defeating the Blue Devils in four sets (25-19, 25-18, 23-25, 25-17).

The Nittany Lions are looking to win their fourth consecutive NCAA Championship and remain the highest seed in the tournament after No. 3 Stanford, No. 2 Nebraska and No. 1 Florida were eliminated.

Penn State’s star of the show was freshman Deja McClendon, turning in a hitting percentage of .347. She produced 20 kills for the night, tying her career high.

Arielle Wilson and Blair Brown delivered hitting percentages of .385 and .220, respectively. Brown recorded 16 kills, with Wilson following behind at 12.

McClendon, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, was looking for revenge after her performance against Oklahoma in the NCAA Regional Semifinal on Dec. 10, where she had a disappointing hitting percentage of .136.

Penn State head coach Russ Rose is proud of the way that McClendon bounced back against the Blue Devils.

“Deja had a great night,” he said. “People will look at the box score and see that she had a great night in kills and hitting percentage but you know she received about two-thirds of the serves and she was our best passer and that’s probably the thing that I’m most pleased about.”

But Duke didn’t go down without a fight. The Atlantic Coast Conference champions showed up to the Elite Eight for the second time in program history looking to make a statement in front of 3,500 fans in Happy Valley.

After the Nittany Lions took a commanding lead in the first two sets, the Blue Devils came charging back in the third. With the set tied at 14, Duke went on a 6-1 scoring run to bring the score to 20-15. Penn State responded with a 4-0 run, bringing the score to 21-20. Tied at 23, Becci Burling and Claire Smalzer capped off the set with a kill each, for a final score of 25-23.

Sophia Dunworth and Smalzer both produced five kills in the third set. Dunworth led Duke overall with 12 kills, while Burling turned in the highest hitting percentage for the team with a .280.

Penn State’s loss in the third set was the first time in five years that the team had lost a set in NCAA Tournament play.

Penn State wrapped up the night with a dominant fourth set, going on two 4-0 scoring runs early on in the set, which was too much to handle for Duke.

While Rose is pleased with the result of Thursday’s match, he’s still reminding the team of where they came from this season and where they still have to go.

“They’ve had to work hard,” he said. “The Big Ten is a very tough conference and we started off the Big Ten season losing our first match and you know we were 3-3 and they had to fight and I never let them off the hook of what the goals of this team and what the expectations of this program should always be.”

The Nittany Lions will face off against Texas on Dec. 16 in the NCAA National Semifinals in Kansas City, Missouri.