Akron, Ohio, Sept. 5, 2003  The Penn State women’s volleyball team defeated Pittsburgh in four games (30-25, 28-30, 30-22, 30-25) in the first match of the Zips Invitational to improve to 5-0 on the season.

“Pittsburgh played very well,” said head coach Russ Rose after the match. “They are a veteran team and they exposed our weaknesses to give us a tough match.”

Junior Ashley Pederson (Sioux Falls, S.D.) led the Lions with 22 kills on 39 attempts to hit .513 for the match. Senior Cara Smith (Lafayette, Ind.) recorded 17 kills while senior Erin Iceman (Wooster, Ohio) chipped in 15 kills. As a team, Penn State outhit Pittsburgh, .357 to .266.

Sophomore Sam Tortorello (Shorewood, Ill.) directed the Penn State offense with 60 assists while adding 12 digs. Sophomore libero Kaleena Walters (Mt. Lebanon, Pa.) led all players with 19 digs and junior Tabitha Eshleman (Greencastle, Pa.) recorded seven as the Lions outdug the Panthers, 61 to 58.

Penn State won the blocking battle, 9.5 to 6.0 as freshman Cassy Salyer (Aurora, Colo.) posted a team-high six blocks and Iceman added five.

The Lions recorded seven service aces, led by Smith with two, but allowed eight aces by Pittsburgh, including three each by Gini Ullery and Sarah Rollman.

The first game began with the teams trading points until a Pederson kill followed by a Panther attack error gave the Lions the 14-12 lead. A block by Salyer and Iceman pushed the score to 18-14 and an ace by freshman Ashley Fidler (Wauconda, Ill.) forced a Panther timeout at 24-19 before a kill by Fidler ended the game at 30-25. Smith and Pederson both recorded four kills in the first set while Walters added five digs.

Penn State found itself down 8-3 to begin the second game before the Lions slowly chipped away at the deficit, bringing the score to within one on an ace by senior Jess Hayden (South Laguna Beach, Calif.). A kill from Smith, aided by a diving dig from Hayden, tied the score at 13-13 and an Iceman kill gave Penn State its first lead of the game at 14-13. But Pittsburgh fought back to take the lead and forced a Penn State timeout with the Lions down, 25-26. A Pederson kill out of the break evened the score at 26-26 but the Panthers answered with a kill of their own to take the 27-26 lead. An Iceman block was followed by a Pittsburgh block and a kill, forcing Penn State to take a timeout, down 28-29. A Penn State attacking error ended the stanza, 30-28 in favor of the Panthers. Pederson led the squad with eight kills as Walters recorded eight digs for the Lions.

The teams went back and forth to start the third game before two Pederson kills made the score 12-11. Following a Pittsburgh timeout, a block by Smith and Tortorello coupled with an attack error from the Panthers put Penn State up, 14-11. The Lions went on a 5-1 run to force a timeout at 19-13 on a Pederson kill. Pittsburgh fought back to within four at 22-18 but a kill from Salyer followed by a Panther attack error gave Penn State the 24-18 lead.

Another Pittsburgh attack error ended the game, 30-22. Pederson connected on all eight of her attacks to lead the Lions while Smith and Iceman both posted five kills each.

Penn State again found itself down in the fourth game, 16-11, before a kill from Salyer sparked a 6-1 run to tie the score at 17-17 and force a Pittsburgh timeout. An ace from freshman Kris Brown (Wooster, Ohio) gave Penn State its first lead of the game at 20-19 and the Lion steadily increased their lead until a block from Fidler and Salyer pushed the score to 27-23. An Iceman kill ended the game 30-25. Smith led the Lions with five kills and Fidler and Iceman added four each.

Akron, Ohio, Sept. 6, 2003  Senior Cara Smith (Lafayette, Ind.) recorded 15 kills and hit .423 as the ninth-ranked Penn State women’s volleyball team defeated American University in three games (30-19, 30-25, 30-24) to improve to 6-0 on the season.

Junior Ashley Pederson (Sioux Falls, S.D.) pounded 12 kills while freshman Cassy Salyer (Aurora, Colo.) chipped in 11 kills on 16 attempts to hit .562 for the match. Penn State outhit the Eagles, .351 to .147.

Sophomore Sam Tortorello (Shorewood, Ill.) directed the Nittany Lion offense with 45 assists to go along with her two kills and six digs. Sophomore libero Kaleena Walters (Mt. Lebanon, Pa.) posted 13 digs to lead all players with senior Erin Iceman (Wooster, Ohio) adding 11 digs as the Lions outdug American, 49 to 37.

Penn State also won the blocking battle, 10.5 to 6.0 as Salyer led the way with six blocks and Tortorello and Iceman each added three.

Freshman Kris Brown (Wooster, Ohio) led the way for the Lions behind the service line, recording all three of Penn State’s service aces.

Penn State took the 3-0 lead to begin the first game before a block by Salyer and a kill from Pederson forced an American timeout at 12-6. A kill from freshman Ashley Fidler (Wauconda, Ill.) aided by a diving dig from junior Tabitha Eshleman (Greencastle, Pa.) made the score 14-9. The teams traded points before a block from Tortorello and Salyer forced another Eagle timeout at 22-16. After an American kill out of the break, Penn State scored the next six points, three on kills from Iceman, to take the 28-17 lead. A Salyer kill ended the game at 30-19. Smith and Salyer led the way for the Lions, recording six and five kills, respectively, as Iceman posted seven digs.

A Smith kill opened the second stanza as Penn State went on a 10-4 run to force the timeout. American fought back to within three at 18-15, but a kill from Tortorello pushed the lead to four. An Eagle kill was followed by a put-away from redshirt freshman Kim Holm (St. Charles, Ill.) to give Penn State the 20-16 lead. The teams traded points the rest of the way with an American attack error ending the game at 30-25. Smith recorded five kills as Holm added four for the Lions in the game.

A solo block and an overpass kill from Holm started the third game as the Nittany Lions jumped out to the 9-4 lead on a Pederson kill. American scored six of the next eight points to pull within one at 11-10. An Iceman kill gave Penn State a two-point lead but three straight Eagle points allowed American its first lead of the game. An Iceman kill tied the game at 13-13. Three more Eagle points gave American the 16-13 lead before kills from Smith and Pederson and back-to-back aces from Brown put Penn State back on top, 17-16. The teams traded points before a triple block from Salyer, Iceman and Pederson forced a timeout at 22-19. A Salyer and Iceman block followed the break and gave the Lions the momentum to score eight of the next 13 points to take the third game, 30-24, on a Pederson kill. Pederson recorded six kills on an errorless seven attempts to hit .857 in the game.

Akron, Ohio, Sept. 6, 2003  The ninth-ranked Penn State women’s volleyball team defeated Akron in three games (30-26, 30-21, 30-22) to improve to 7-0 on the season.

Junior Ashley Pederson (Sioux Falls, S.D.) led all players with 15 kills with freshman Cassy Salyer (Aurora, Colo.) adding 13 and senior Cara Smith (Lafayette, Ind.) chipping in 11. Penn State outhit Akron, .354 to .222 for the match.

Sophomore setter Sam Tortorello (Shorewood, Ill.) directed the Nittany Lion offense with 45 assists, adding seven kills on 11 attempts (.636) and 10 digs. Freshman Kaleena Walters (Mt. Lebanon, Pa.) recorded a career-high 26 digs to lead the Lions while senior Erin Iceman (Wooster, Ohio) chipped in 11 digs as the Lions outdug the Zips, 71 to 66.

Penn State also outblocked Akron, 8.0 to 4.0, led by Smith and Salyer with three blocks each.

After the match, Smith was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament while Walters and Pederson were named to the all-tournament team.

Penn State began the first game on a 6-1 run before the Zips fought back to tie the game at 6-6. The teams traded points before an Ashley Fidler (Wauconda, Ill.)  kill forced a timeout at 16-12. A block from Salyer and Pederson made the score 20-15 but Akron tied the game at 24-24. The Nittany Lions scored the next four points, two on kills from Smith and one each on kills from Tortorello and Pederson to force a timeout at 28-24. The teams traded kills before a Pederson put-away ended the game at 30-26. Pederson led the squad with six kills in the set.

The Nittany Lions scored 13 of the first 17 points to begin the second game as a kill from Pederson gave Penn State the 13-4 lead. Back to back kills from Salyer pushed the score to 21-14 and an Akron attacking error forced a timeout at 24-16. Penn State reeled off three straight points capped by a Tortorello kill to make the score 27-18 and a Salyer kill ended the set, 30-21. Salyer posted seven kills on 10 attempts to lead the Lions in the second game.

Penn State again started out on fire, taking the 15-5 lead on a kill from Salyer.

The Nittany Lions remained in control the rest of the match, with a Pederson kill making the score 24-15 and a Salyer put-away ending the game, 30-22.

Penn State travels to Provo, Utah, next weekend for the BYU Mizuno Classic. The Nittany Lions face Rice on Friday, Sept. 12 at 5:00 p.m. MT and the host Cougars on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m. MT. Penn State returns home for its first matches at Rec Hall during the 2003 season on Sept. 19-20 when it hosts the Penn State Classic. The Nittany Lion face Robert Morris on Friday, Sept. 19 beginning at 7:30 p.m.