No. 20 Penn State improves to 7-0 with five-set upset of No. 11 Stanford

MINNEAPOLIS — They call themselves the No Names because no one really knows who they are. 

That’s about to change.

In a match filled with blocks and hitting errors, No. 20 Penn State beat No. 11 Stanford 25-16, 25-22, 17-25, 23-25, 15-10 Friday night.

Now at 7-0, Penn State is not only off to a great start, but everyone can start focusing not on the first-year coach who replaced a legend, but on a team that has surprised the NCAA volleyball world.

Penn State of the Big Ten hit .139 but held a 21-13.5 blocks advantage. Stanford (3-2) of the Pac-12 hit .186

Outside Kashauna Williams, a transfer from Long Beach State, led with 16 kills, hit .361, and had four digs and two blocks for the Nittany Lions. 

Allie Holland, a junior middle, had six kills and nine blocks, one solo.

“Oh, my God, that was so exciting,” Holland said. “It’s exciting to be back at Minnesota and these are my best friends, so being out there with them was so exciting.”

Sophomore Anjelina Starck had 12 kills, an assist, nine digs and two blocks. Taylor Trammell, a middle who transferred from Purdue, had five kills, a dig and 11 blocks, one solo.

Zoe Weatherington, the transfer from Utah who hits as hard as anyone in the college game, had seven kills but hit minus .174. However, she had eight blocks, one solo. Setter Seleisa Elisaia, a transfer from CSU Bakersfield, had two kills in five errorless tries, 35 assists, three aces, 10 digs and seven blocks. The Penn State littles were big as Maddy Bilinovic, who had eight assists, and Gillian Grimes had 11 digs each and Cassie Kuerschen had nine.

To its credit, Penn State stayed uber-aggressive throughout the match and never played it safe.

“I think the nature of Penn State volleyball is you go hard all the time,” Holland said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a Tuesday practice or a Friday night game against a huge ranked opponent. The thing with Penn State volleyball is we go hard all the time. So it’s discussed, but it’s also the nature of all of us.”

After last season, legendary Penn State coach Russ Rose retired after 43 seasons. Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who played for Rose and was his assistant, took over. 

“That’s a great win and that’s a great team and Stanford’s gonna do some big things, too, so it’s nice to sneak out of here with that one,” Schumacher-Cawley said.

She’s spent much of the past seven months answering questions about what it’s like to replace a…