Columbus, Ohio., Nov. 15, 2002 The Penn State women¡¯s volleyball team fell to Ohio State in three games (28-30, 30-32, 25-30) Friday night in Columbus, Ohio. The Nittany Lions fall to 20-6, 10-5 in the Big Ten while the Buckeyes improve to 15-10, 9-7 in conference action.

Penn State junior Cara Smith (Lafayette, Ind.) paced the Lions with 14 kills while sophomore Ashley Pederson (Sioux Falls, S.D.) tallied 12. Leading the Buckeyes was sophomore Stacey Gordon with a match-high 19 kills with seniors Suzie Stiling and Shelly Draeger adding 11 and 10, respectively.

Ohio State opened game with a 4-0 lead off a Penn State error and kills by Gordon, Draeger and Stephanie Higgins (Fr., Biggsville, Ill.). A Buckeye error, a kill by sophomore Syndie Nadeau (St. Georges, Quebec) and an ace serve by junior Erin Iceman (Wooster, Ohio) cut the margin to 4-3. A Penn State error, a Smith kill and an OSU error tied the game at five. A Pederson kill and a Higgins kill made it six-all. Draeger's kill made it 7-6, OSU. A Pederson kill tied the game at seven. A Lion block by Pederson and senior Mishka Levy (Houston, Texas) with a Pederson kill made it 9-7, Penn State. A Nittany Lion error and an ace serve by Draeger tied the game at nine. An Andersson kill and an OSU error made it 10-all. Kills by Stiling and Gordon and a PSU error gave OSU a 13-10 lead. Levy stopped the run with a kill at 13-11. Kills by OSU's Katie Virtue (Sr., St. Charles, Ill.) and PSU's Nadeau moved the score to 14-12. Two Penn State errors made it 16-12, Buckeyes. Kills by Smith and Draeger made it 17-13. Penn State, with kills from Smith and Pederson cut the lead to 17-15. Kills by Gordon and Stiling put the lead at four (19-15.) Kills by Pederson and Stiling moved the score to 20-16. The Nittany Lions scored the next four points with a Levy kill, a block by junior Robyn Guokas (Burr Ridge, Ill.) and Levy, an OSU error and a Guokas-Levy block to tie the game at 20. A Nittany Lion error and a Stiling kill made it 22-20. Kills by Levy and Gordon made it 23-21. A Nadeau kill closed the lead to one at 23-22. A kill by Virtue, a block by Draeger and Higgins and a PSU error made it 26-22, OSU. Smith countered with a kill at 26-23. A Draeger kill and a Penn State error made it 28-23. After a Penn State time out, a Nadeau kill and a Buckeye error cut the lead to 28-25 as OSU called time out. Another Buckeye error and a block by freshman setter Sam Tortorello (Shorewood, Ill.), Smith and Pederson cut the lead to one at 28-27. A Nadeau service error set game point for Ohio State at 29-27. A Smith kill made it a one-point game at 29-27. Junior Jessica Hayden (South Laguna Beach, Calif.) entered the game to serve for Penn State and sailed it out-of-bounds for a 30-28 Ohio State win. The Buckeyes hit .333 for the game to .289 for the Nittany Lions.

With a Stiling kill and a Virtue-Stiling block, Ohio State opened game two with a 2-0 lead. A Buckeye error made it 2-1. A Stiling kill and a Virtue-Higgins block made it 4-1. Two Smith kills and an ace serve by Iceman tied the game at four. Kills by Gordon and Nadeau made it five-all. Kills by Smith and Gordon made it six-all. A Smith kill and a Buckeye error gave Penn State an 8-6 lead. A Draeger kill and an ace serve by Higgins tied the game at eight. Each team had an error to make it nine-all. A Stiling kill and a Virtue-Stiling block made it 11-9, OSU. A Levy kill and an ace by Pederson tied the game at 11. Two Penn State errors made it 13-11, Buckeyes. A Buckeye error and a Gordon kill made it 14-12. Smith's kill and an OSU error tied the game at 14. A kill by Smith and a Penn State error made it 15-all. A Buckeye error and a block by Gordon and Higgins made it 16-all. Smith and Draeger exchanged kills making it 17-all. A Buckeye error and a Gordon kill tied the game at 18. A Draeger ace serve and an OSU error tied the game at 19. A Buckeye error and a Levy solo block gave Penn State a 21-19 lead. A kill by Amanda Miller (Fr., Littleton, Colo.) and a Levy solo block made it 22-20, Penn State. A Penn State error and a Smith kill made it 23-21. A PSU error and a Nadeau kill made it 24-22. A Buckeye error and a Gordon kill made it 25-23. Two Penn State errors tied the game at 25. A Buckeye error and a Draeger kill made it 26-all. Kills by Levy and Stiling made it 27-all. An OSU block by Anna Andersson (Fr., Angelholm, Sweden), and Stiling followed by a Pederson kill tied the game at 28. A Guokas kill gave Penn State a 29-28 lead at game point. Virtue and Stiling combined for a block to tie the game at 29. A Guokas-Nadeau block made it 30-29 and PSU's second game point. Gordon responded with a kill to tie the game at 30. Gordon, on a serve overpass, made it 31-30, OSU for game point. A Virtue-Higgins block ended the game at 32-30 for OSU. The Buckeyes hit .150 for the game to .038 for Penn State.

An Andersson kill and an OSU error tied game three at one. A Levy ace and a Buckeye error made it 3-1, Penn State. A Stiling kill and a Buckeye error made it 4-2. Two Penn State errors tied the game at four. Kills by Gordon and Nadeau made it five all. Penn State scored the next five points to take a 10-5 lead. The run included an OSU error, a block by Tortorello and Smith and three Pederson kills. Gordon stopped the run with a kill at 10-6. Pederson countered with a kill at 11-6. Kills by Draeger and Andersson cut the lead to 11-8. Two Buckeye errors made it 13-8. Kills by Stiling and Iceman made it 14-9. A Penn State error and an Iceman kill made it 15-10. Errors by both teams made it 16-11. A Nittany Lion error and a Nadeau kill made it 17-12. Kills by Gordon and Andersson cut the margin to 17-14. A Tortorello kill and an OSU error made it 19-14. The Buckeyes, with three Penn State errors and kills by Gordon and Draeger tied the game at 19. A PSU error and a Pederson kill made it 20-all. A Draeger kill and a Virtue-Stiling block gave OSU a 22-20 lead. Kills by Pederson and Stiling moved the score to 23-21. A Virtue solo block made it 24-21. A Levy kill and an ace serve cut the lead to 24-23. Gordon responded with two kills at Penn State called time out at 26-23. Gordon's third straight kill made it 27-23. Smith stopped the run with a kill at 27-24 and a Nadeau kill made it 27-25. An Iceman service error was followed by a Gordon kill that set match point at 29-25. Gordon and Higgins combined on a block to close out the match at 30-25 for a 3-0 victory. Ohio State hit .414 for the game to .125 for Penn State.

Ohio State hit .286 for the match to .138 for Penn State. OSU had a 49-45 margin in kills. Penn State had a 5-3 advantage in aces but had 10-service error to eight for OSU. Ohio State had a 46-33 margin in digs with OSU's Gordon recording a match-high 12. The Buckeyes had an 11.5 to 8.5 margin in blocks. OSU's Virtue tied her career-high of seven total blocks with a solo and six assists. Penn State's Tortorello recorded 39 assists in the match to 38 for OSU's Virtue.

Penn State takes on the Hoosiers of Indiana on Saturday, Nov. 16, at 7:00 p.m. ET. Both matches can be heard live via the web at www.GoPSUsports.com with WMAJ¡¯s Pat Boland on the call.

For complete match and season statistics and updates, please visit the women¡¯s volleyball homepage on Penn State¡¯s official athletic website, www.GoPSUsports.com.