Penn State Volleyball Takeaways: Pitt was Too Good

Penn State volleyball didn’t play like the No. 3 team in the country Wednesday night. 

Now, there are plenty of teams PSU could against and get away with not being at its best or close to it.

Top-ranked Pitt is not one of them.

From the start, Pitt (7-0) gave the largest home crowd in program history a lot to cheer about. The No. 1 team won the first set 25-15, the second set 25-19 and the third set 25-18. Pitt hasn’t lost a single set yet through seven matches, so, yeah, it’s kind of impressive.

Here are three takeaways from what was a bad night to have a bad night for Penn State volleyball.

PENN STATE TAKEAWAY NO. 1: ‘DEER IN HEADLIGHTS’

Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley gave Pitt its due at the beginning of her post-match presser. She also acknowledged that her team wasn’t in top form.

“We looked like a deer in headlights at times,” she said. “Our serve/pass game wasn’t great. Pitt played a great match.”

“For the first time this season,” outside hitter Jess Mruzik said, “it felt like we kind of lost our heads a little bit. Our first couple of matches, we were very even-keeled, and when things were kind of hitting the fan, we felt like we were going to figure it out.That’s what we said. ‘We’ll find it. We’ll find our grove,’ and for the first time, we felt like we didn’t really have that control. So at the end of the day, we just lost control of our own heads.”

PENN STATE TAKEAWAY NO. 2: FAILURE TO CAPTALIZE

Penn State entered the third set on life support, needing to win three straight to beat Pitt. It didn’t help itself by falling behind 18-8 but did claw back to get it to 18-14.

That ended up being as close as Penn State got.

For Penn State middle blocker Taylor Trammell, that 6-0 run showed what Penn State is at its best.

“I think that we had our moments where it kind of just clicked in our head and as a team, we’re like a well-oiled machine,” she said. “I think you guys saw that with the 6-0 run. I think that everyone kind of just started playing their game a little bit and then we fell out of it. That’s going to happen in volleyball. Volleyball’s a game of errors. But I think when we’re all working together, we’re unstoppable.”

PSU TAKEAWAY NO. 3: UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN?

The season is far from over but we already know Penn State and Pitt will be in the NCAA Tournament.

Maybe there will be a rematch.

“Who knows?” Schumacher-Cawley. “Maybe we’ll see them again at the end of the season. That would be fun for all of us.”