IU volleyball hits road for Penn State rematch

The IU volleyball team heads east for possibly one of the its toughest road trips of the year.

The Hoosiers (17-5, 5-5) take on No. 9 Penn State (17-4, 7-3) on Friday and Ohio State (17-6, 5-5) on Saturday.

“Any Big Ten team is going to be extremely hard to play on the road,” sophomore outside hitter Kelci Marschall said.

IU is currently in a four-way tie for fifth place in the Big Ten with Ohio State, Northwestern and Purdue.

IU will be playing against history on Friday. Although the Hoosiers defeated Penn State at home on Oct. 9, it will be a much different atmosphere on the road. In fact, the last time a Big Ten team beat the Nittany Lions at home was in 2004.

The Nittany Lions are led by senior middle hitter Blair Brown and freshman outside hitter Deja McClendon with 261 and 243 kills, respectively.

When the Hoosiers beat Penn State earlier this season, they held Brown and McClendon to 16 and 14 kills.

The Hoosiers have to watch out for Penn State’s blocks — the team leads the conference with 2.98 blocks per game.

On Saturday, IU will be facing another rematch, this time against the Buckeyes. The Hoosiers beat the Buckeyes in four sets on Oct. 8 in Bloomington.

IU assistant coach Nancy Mueller talked about consistency being important on the road this weekend.

“I think we need to maintain our identity.” Mueller said. “It’s how you keep your composure after an error.”

Dunbar stressed the importance of playing IU volleyball and fixing mistakes if they get in that situation this weekend.

“We are going to play our game,” Dunbar said. “If that’s good enough, then we are going to win, but if it’s not then we have to figure out how to get it better.”