PITTSBURGH– A defending national champion losing two straight non-conference games would be unheard of in college football, and Penn State coach James Franklin scheduling two ranked opponents in the non-conference is about as likely as Paul McCartney becoming a rapper.
In college volleyball, it isn’t too crazy, and that’s why Penn State, despite coming into the season ranked No. 2 in the country, already has a pair of losses.
Here are five takeaways from No. 5 Penn State’s five-set loss to No. 24 TCU Monday night at PPG Paints Arena.
A ROUGH START
The biggest reason for Penn State’s loss was that it lost the first two sets.
Coming back from 2-0 down isn’t impossible– and we’ll talk more about that later– but it’s pretty darn improbable.
For Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, Penn State not fixing its issue of errors that plagued the team the previous night against Arizona State made a big difference.
Penn State had 44 total errors to TCU’s 37
“They’re a very good team, and they took us out of our game,” Schumacher-Cawley said afterward. “We weren’t passing well the first two sets, and I think we make way too many errors. They capitalized on it, and we found a way to score some points down the road, but it’s hard to win when you’re making 11 errors a set.
NO FIFTH SET MAGIC
Penn State proved last December in its national semifinal match against Nebraska that reverse sweeps (going from down 2-0 to winning the set 3-2) are possible.
But that wasn’t to be Monday night.
Penn State seemed to have all the momentum going into set five, but TCU regrouped and finished the upset.
“I think we were just able to do some good stuff with the service line the whole match,” TCU coach Jason Williams said. “But in the fourth set, we just started off with a massive amount of errors and just gave them so momentum. In the fifth set, we calmed down a little bit. We had a little bit more of a game plan. We kind of figured out the new rotation that we had, but the servers pulled us through.”
PLAYING FOR AN INJURED TEAMMATE
TCU’s win was bittersweet because of an injury to outside hitter Jalyn Gibson.
Gibson– who already had 10 kills by the time she went down in the fourth set– could be heard screaming in pain.
Williams said afterward that they don’t know her status.
For middle blocker Sarah Slyvester, rallying around their teammate was key.
“It’s really great to see our team come together like that,” she said. “It wasn’t always pretty. Every single point from after that, trying to recover. But we had Samara (Coleman), she came in and did a great job, and some experienced blocks were able to get her served right a little bit. So just being able to see our team respond to adversity like that, come together, was really great.”
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STEEL CITY SADNESS
Penn St. right side hitter Camryn Hannah (8) Penn State Volleyball September 18, 2024 David Hague/NSN
Penn State has lost four matches since the start of last season, and three of them have been in the city of Pittsburgh.
Last year, Penn State lost in straight sets at Pitt.
This year, it lost both matches it played at PPG Paints Arena.
“What’s up with this place, man?” Schumacher-Cawley said with a smile.
Penn State got it together after losing in Pittsburgh last season and won a national title.
For Williams, this team has the talent to do it again.
“They have one of the best opposites in the country (Kennedy Martin),” he said. “They have a premier scorer. They have one of the top setters in the country (Izzy Starck). I think they just need some time for their new outsides (Emmi Sellman, Caroline Jurevicius). It’s two brand new outsides, right? Jurevicius was on the right side last year, so it’s just going to take them a little bit of time to get in the rhythm, get into the flow of transition. I think right now, the ball control is probably not where Katie wants it to be, and it’s just hurting them. But I do think they could easily find themselves back in the final four.”
Schumacher-Cawley knows that loss is often the best teacher.
“I think every match is a learning experience,” she said, “and obviously… I say it all the time, it’s hard to win, and we need to take a good look at what we’re doing. That starts with me, and what we’re doing in training. So we need to make some solid changes here to prepare for another tough weekend ahead of us. I’m hopeful these experiences will help this group, and focus on the skills that they need to get better at.
A MESSAGE FOR DISGRUNTLED FANS
Something that comes with the territory of being as historically dominant as Penn State volleyball is that a two-match losing streak feels like a big deal.
After all, Penn State only lost two games all of last season.
Schumacher-Cawley knows not to panic, and knows that a win over No. 4 Kentucky at Rec Hall Friday would be huge.
“I think it’s the second week of the season,” she said. “That’s what I think. We have a lot of season left and a lot of time to prepare and get better individually and as a group. We scheduled like this for a reason. These are all great teams we’ve played this weekend, and ranked teams and teams that will be in the tournament. We’ll use it as a tool to get better.”
