2010_Part2:Layout 1
8/25/10
11:07 AM
Page 24
2009 Highlights Commanding the Conference The Nittany Lions again closed out the conference with a perfect 20-0 record. Over the last five seasons, Penn State holds a Big Ten winning percentage of .980, winning 98 of its last 100 league matches. Spanning the last six years, the Nittany Lions are 115-5 (.958) in conference action. In individual sets within the conference, Penn State was 60-5 this season, and since 2004, the Nittany Lions have claimed 98 of its 115 league wins in three sets, having been only pushed to four or five sets on 18 occasions.
Glass Takes Fourth on PSU Career Assists List With 39 assists at Indiana on Nov. 21, senior Alisha Glass moved into fourth place on the Penn State career assists list. She finished out her career with 5,799. She is just one of five Nittany Lions to surpass 5,000 assists during her career. Michelle Jaworski (1987-90) holds the record with 6,596. e top five on the list include, Sam Tortorello (2002-05) with 6,087, Bonnie Bremner (1996-99) with 5,911 and Salima Davidson (1991-94) with 5,455. Record-Setting Nittany Lions e Nittany Lion offense shattered the Big Ten record for hitting percentage in the team’s home opener against Buffalo. Penn State attacked at a .702 clip versus the Bulls, beating Northwestern’s record of .698. It was also the first time since a Nov. 10, 2000 match against Northwestern that the Nittany Lions held an opponent to single-digit points in all three sets. e Nittany Lions almost took over fifth place in the NCAA records for team attack percentage with their performance against Buffalo. However, to qualify for the standings the team must have at least 15 attacks per set and Penn State was one short in the third set.
Hodge Eclipses 2,000 Career Kills With her 15th kill at Purdue on Nov. 20, senior Megan Hodge became just the second Nittany Lion in program history to reach 2,000 career kills. She went on to tally nine additional kills against the Boilermakers in that match. The Nittany Lions played nine more matches in 2009 with Hodge posting double-digit kills in seven of them. With 21 kills in the NCAA National Championship match against Texas, Hodge closed out her career with 2,142 kills. She ranks second all-time behind Lori Barberich (1981-84) who has 2,282. Hodge does hold the Penn State record in attacks with 4,713 and ranks 14th all-time in digs with 1,150. Streaking The Nittany Lions closed out the 2008 Big Ten slate with two wins to increase its Big Ten winning streak to 45, which ranked second all-time. With a 3-1 victory against Ohio State on Oct. 7, 2009, the Nittany Lions set a Big Ten record with its 50th straight Big Ten win. Penn State owns the top three marks in the league. The last Penn State loss in the Big Ten was in three games at Ohio State on Nov. 8, 2006. Top Five Consecutive Big Ten Win Streaks • 65 - Penn State (11/11/06 - Present) • 49 - Penn State (11/1/97 - 11/27/99) - snapped at Wisconsin (9/22/00) • 41 - Penn State (10/22/04 - 10/21/06) - snapped at Wisconsin (10/27/06) • 40 - Illinois (11/15/85 - 11/20/87) - snapped at Purdue (11/27/87) • 25 - Illinois (10/2/92 - 10/9/93) - snapped vs. Penn State (10/15/93) Unphased at Home and On the Road Between 1995-2000, the Nittany Lions won an NCAA_record 87 consecutive home matches. Nebraska, which entered 2009 having won 85 consecutie home matches, extended its home match winning streak to 90 matches before suffering a loss to UCLA on Sept. 13. The Nittany Lions, who have won 70 straight at home since the start of the 2006 season, are well on their way back to taking control of the record once again. 74 PENN STATE 2010-2011 WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
The Nittany Lions are also dominant on the road having won 51 consecutive road matches. The streak began on Sept. 28, 2007 with a 3-0 sweep at Indiana. Penn State’s road streak ranks first all-time after surpassing USC’s record of 48 straight road wins, which lasted from Nov. 15, 2001 ro Sept. 10, 2004. AVCA Poll History Penn State was ranked No. 1 in the final AVCA Coaches Poll released on Dec. 22. Prior to the 2009 season, the Nittany Lions had been ranked No. 1 48 times according to the AVCA Division I Women’s Poll Record Book, good enough to be tied for third all-time with Hawai’i. Including the final poll of the 2009 season, Penn State has now been ranked No. 1 64 times and ranks second behind only Nebraska who holds the top spot at 81.
Active Ankle All-Tournament Honors Senior Megan Hodge and juniors Blair Brown and Alyssa D’Errico were selected to the all-tournament team at Saint Louis’ Active Ankle Challenge Aug. 28-29. Senior Alisha Glass was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. e Nittany Lions were joined by Saint Louis’ Sammi McCloud and Whitney Roth.
AVCA Coaches Top 25 Rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
School Penn State (60) Texas Hawai’i Minnesota Nebraska Iowa State Stanford California Michigan Illinois Florida State Kentucky Washington UCLA Florida USC Colorado State Oregon LSU Baylor Texas A&M St. Mary’s (Calif.) Northern Iowa Tennessee Dayton
2009 Final Poll Total Points 1500 1440 1380 1300 1232 1141 1100 1058 1012 982 921 823 751 716 675 578 516 437 398 357 293 242 204 137 93
2009 Rec 38-0 29-2 32-3 28-9 26-7 27-5 23-8 21-11 27-10 26-6 31-3 29-5 24-6 24-9 25-6 22-10 25-6 20-10 25-7 24-10 20-11 23-5 31-3 24-8 30-4
.
Last Week 1 2 3 11 7 5 4 10 16 8 12 13 6 9 14 15 25 17 18 NR NR 21 20 24 23
Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: Arizona 62; Saint Louis 24; Ohio 24; Ohio State 18; Wichita State 17; Notre Dame 16; Pepperdine 12; UC Santa Barbara; San Diego 5; Florida International 4
Penn State In The Coaches Poll
A look at how Penn State ranked in the CSTV/AVCA Coaches Poll throughout the 2009 season:
Preseason: #1; Aug. 31: #1; Sept. 7: #1; Sept. 14: #1; Sept. 21: #1; Sept. 28: #1: Oct. 5: #1; Oct. 12: #1; Oct. 19: #1; Oct. 26: #1; Nov. 2: #1; Nov. 9: #1; Nov. 16; Nov. 23: #1; Nov. 30: #1; Dec. 22: #1
13-TIME BIG TEN CHAMPIONS ‘92, ‘93, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98, ‘99, ‘03, ‘04, ‘05, ‘06, ‘07, ‘08, ‘09