Top takeaways from women's volleyball's Spring Game versus Villanova

Penn State women’s volleyball opened its two-match spring season with a 3-1 victory over Villanova on Saturday. A few newcomers shined while some returners tried out some new roles, as all of which set up for the finale next week against Maryland.

Match Recap: How it all happened

Penn State jumped out to a large early lead in Set 1, forcing two Villanova timeouts before securing a 15-3 bump. The pins were working well under Florida transfer setter Alexis Stucky, putting together seven of the 10 team kills for the set as Penn State won, 25-13.

The block was also key to the set victory, stuffing Wildcat attackers eight times in the first frame. Pittsburgh transfer middle blocker Ryla Jones led the charge with four blocks, finishing the day with a team-leading eight in total.

Set 2 belonged to a balanced attack of opposite hitter Alexis Ewing and freshman outside hitters Finley Krystkowiak and Haley Burgdorf, combining for six kills and contributing to a match-high .409 hitting clip in the frame.

Middle blocker Gabrielle Nichols established her presence in the second set as well, leading all attackers in the frame with five kills of her own without any attack errors as Penn State won, 25-14.

Villanova scored the first five points of Set 3, which was aided by two Penn State attack errors and two kills from outside hitter Abby Harrell. The rest of the set became a back-and-forth struggle for Penn State, capitalized by a match-high seven attack errors en route to a 25-23 loss.

Penn State rediscovered its footing in the fourth set, which turned into the Whitney Lauenstein show as the Texas transfer outside hitter recorded eight kills with one attack error that came from a solo block from Reagan McGivern of Villanova.

Lauenstein ended up leading all Nittany Lion attackers in kills with 11, finishing with a .526 hitting clip and a team-high 13 points to boot as Penn State secured the match victory with a 26-24 win.

Offensive shakeup could help lessen Martin’s load

Despite the absence of outside hitter Caroline Jurevicius, the pins were able to work well with Stucky as the setter. The outsides managed to combine for 31 kills and hit away from the Villanova block all but five times in 74 attempts.

The Nittany Lions hit .284 overall, a performance that would place slightly in the upper half of its results from last year. The other large piece came from the work of the middle blockers in Jones, Nichols and freshman Kendall Northern.

The three put together a .486 hitting clip on 35 attempts, highlighted by Nichols’ eight kills on 16 errorless swings. A key piece in that trio is the ability of Jones and Nichols to execute the slide attack, which was mainly Maggie Mendelson’s job last season.

On the topic of sets, Stucky worked well in establishing the bic, also known as the back-row quick attack. The bic, which emphasizes fast tempo from a back-row hitter, was on display with Lauenstein and Emmi Sellman taking the (Nittany) lion’s share of those sets.

Kennedy Martin leads the offense as the star opposite hitter, but the range of options Stucky has at her disposal will prove to be pivotal come time for Big Ten play. With Lauenstein mainly running the bic on Saturday, she and Martin have the potential to be a deadly one-two punch combo when they rotate into the back row.

Stucky is proving to be an all-around star

The Florida transfer setter picked up right where she left off by tallying 43 assists in the match, though that doesn’t tell the full story for Stucky.

She made her presence known from the service line, putting together four aces on the match and contributed to two lengthy scoring runs in the second set. Fans should be excited about her tape serves, as they were enough to throw Villanova’s receive for a loop early and often.

Stucky’s defense was also fantastic as she totaled six blocks, three of which coming in the first set. She led the Nittany Lions in digs with eight as well, helping extend rallies early to put together an attack while out-of-system.

Passing has room for improvement

The one difficulty that led to a slow finish to Set 1 and an eventual defeat in Set 3 originated in the back row, a problem that will need to be on the to-do list for repair in the summer.

Gillian Grimes leaving for the pros left a hole that looks to be filled by junior Ava Falduto at the libero position, though the Nittany Lions had Jocelyn Nathan at that spot for Set 3 and Lexi Gin for Set 4 on Saturday.

It starts with Falduto, though she impressed in the first two sets as Villanova was held to a .255 kill rate in that stretch. She also totaled seven digs on the match across four sets, leading the liberos.

As for the rest of the back row, Nathan and Gin may need to sub in more often as the passing between the pins often struggled during the match. Though Villanova only notched three aces, the impact was felt during the in-transition possessions amid long rallies.

Villanova seemed to be digging everything, totaling 38 while extending rallies 37 percent of the time. This provided some struggle for Penn State during the long rallies as the Wildcats went punch-for-punch and came away with more wins in those battles for Set 3.

Penn State extended rallies around 41 percent of the time and recorded 35 kills, but the success of the block has masked some of the back-row struggles. Perhaps the extended rallies that Villanova provided will turn into a wakeup call for a team that has most of itself together heading into the spring finale next Sunday.