UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 7 Penn State women’s volleyball team defeated No. 4 Louisville 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-13) on Tuesday night at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions improved to 3-0 and won their first home game of the 13th season.^thseason in a row. The Cardinals fell to 2-1.

Student Jess Mruzik hit .367 with 13 kills. She had six of nine shots in the final set, including the last one for the match point. With her 11^th Kill of the Night, Mruzik reached the 1,500th mark in her career.

Caroline Jurevicius joined Mruzik in double figures with 11 kills. Camryn Hannah had eight kills on .438 hitting, while Maggie Mendelson provided an offensive spark from the middle with seven kills on .462 hitting. Izzy Starck led Penn State in hitting .358 with her 32 assists.

Mruzik narrowly missed a double-double, adding nine digs to go with her kill total. Libero Gillian Grimes led the team with 13 digs, while Ava Falduto and Izzy Starck added seven and six, respectively.

Penn State won the serve-receive battle with five aces compared to Louisville’s one. Hannah served for two, while Grimes, Anjelina Starck and Izzy Starck each had one.

The Nittany Lions held Louisville to .091 hitting. Cara Cresse was the Cardinals’ best hitter with 8 kills and .312 hitting.

Sentence 1
Maggie Mendelson led the way in the first set with five kills on six attacks to lead Penn State to a 25-15 victory. Mruzik and Jurevicius each had four kills. The Nittany Lions had a .389 batting average thanks to 16 assists from Izzy Starck. Penn State pulled away with a 4-0 run to take a 19-11 lead. Quinn Menger was at the service line during the run and helped Louisville to two timeouts. Mendelson, Trammell and Izzy Starck each had kills during this period. Set point was finally achieved by a kill from Jurevicius.

Sentence 2
Penn State relied on its defense in a 25-19 win, hitting just .171 but holding Louisville to .027. It was a series of runs that saw the Nittany Lions score seven straight points to take a 16-10 lead before allowing six straight points to allow Louisville to tie the score at 16-16. The Nittany Lions responded with a 4-0 run fueled by a block from Mruzik and Mendelson. Louisville got within 20-18, but Penn State scored five of the final six points to take the set win. The final point came on a kill by Izzy Starck after a set by Falduto.

Sentence 3
Mruzik had six kills and Jurevicius added four as Penn State won 25-13. Camryn Hannah was perfect with three kills on three shots. The team was efficient, posting a .583 hitting average thanks to nine assists from Izzy Starck.

Career highlights
Caroline Jurevicius – kills (11)
Maggie Mendelson – Kills (7), Assists (2)
Izzy Starck – kills (3)

Next
No. 7 seed Penn State travels to Lexington to compete in the Kentucky Invitational. The Nittany Lions will play the No. 9 seed Wildcats on Friday at 7 p.m. and then face Ball State on Saturday at 5 p.m.