Oct. 13, 2006
Box Score
EVANSTON, Ill. -- In front of 1,002 fans -- the largest crowd in the Keylor Chan era -- Northwestern gave the fans their money's worth and undefeated No. 2 Penn State fits before falling to the Nittany Lions, 3-0.
The Wildcats held leads in all three games, forced PSU timeouts with extended runs in all three games and thoroughly entertained the large and raucus crowd.
The loss drops Northwestern to 8-8 on the season, 2-5 in the Big Ten. Penn State maintains its perfect record with the win, improving to 18-0 on the year, 7-0 in the conference.
Penn State took a quick 4-1 lead in the match before Northwestern reeled off a 4-0 run to take a 5-4 lead. The Nittany Lions then raced out to a seven-point advantage, 20-13, flexing the muscle that earned them the No. 2 ranking in the nation.
Fighting back against their formidable foe, the Wildcats went on a 4-0 run capped by two aces from junior Lindsay Anderson (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) to cut the lead to three, 20-17. Anderson entered the match leading the Big Ten with 0.43 aces per game.
Northwestern continued to pull closer to PSU, getting within a single point, 26-25, on a kill by junior Brittney Aldridge (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire). From there, the Nittany Lions poured on the pressure to pull away to a 30-26 game one win.
In game two, the Wildcats led from the beginning to more than two-thirds of the way through. Northwestern forced a Penn State timeout after an 8-3 run gave the 'Cats a five-point lead, 15-10. A block by Aldridge and Anderson followed by an Aldridge and Stephanie Jurivich (LaGrange, Ill./St. Ignatius) block topped that rally. A Lauren Greenwood (Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood) ace also was included in that run.
Gradually, the Nittany Lions clawed themselves back into the game, taking their first lead at 22-21. Penn State then slowly pulled away to again win by four, 30-26.
Northwestern scored the first four points of game three, helped by a solo block from Courtnie Paulus (Belgium, Wis./Ozaukee) and a block from Paulus and Chelsy Hyser (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere). Penn State came back to score the next five in a row to take a 5-4 lead.
The Nittany Lions then blasted out to an 11-point lead, 27-16, before the Wildcats pieced together a 5-1 run to force a Penn State timeout. PSU went on to win the game, 30-22, and the match, 3-0.
Penn State came into the match hitting a Big Ten-best .343 as a team, and Northwestern held the Nittany Lions to just a .213 mark in the match.
Paulus led Northwestern with 17 kills and a .293 hitting percentage, matching her season high for kills set on Sept. 15 against Pittsburgh. Anderson and Nobilio both led the Wildcats with 16 digs, with Anderson's total setting a season high for her.
Northwestern returns to action at 7 p.m. CT Saturday, Oct. 14 against No. 16 Ohio State at Welsh-Ryan Arena. Admission is free to anyone with a ticket stub from Saturday's 11 a.m. football game against Purdue.