On Friday, September 4 at 7 p.m. the No. 1 ranked Penn State women’s volleyball team opens their home slate, when they take on Buffalo in the first game of the Penn State Invitational at Rec Hall.

The two-time defending national champions go into the match on an NCAA-record setting win streak of 67 matches. Buffalo, will no doubt be up for their biggest challenge of the season in this one.

Penn State sits at 3-0 entering Friday’s match, coming off three three-set victories in the Active Ankle Challenge in St. Louis, MO last weekend. The final win came against No. 20 Saint Louis in front of 6,106 fans. They also defeated Alabama and Miami (Ohio).

As for Buffalo, they enter at 2-1, after winning the University at Buffalo Invitational last weekend. Their first win came in a sweep over Boston College, their first win against an ACC opponent since 2003. Buffalo also defeated Fordham in five sets.

The Bulls dropped their final contest against Seton Hall 3-0, but hung on to win the invitational.

Penn State is led by senior setter, Alisha Glass, who garnered the Active Ankle Challenge MVP award. In the three matches she averaged 11.44 assists per set.

Megan Hodge, another senior, leads the Nittany Lions with 4.11 kills per set so far. Darcy Dorton is second with 3.67, which was good enough to earn her Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.

Alyssa D’Errico leads the Penn State defense, averaging 4.33 digs per set from her libero position. Junior college transfer, Fatima Balza, leads the team with 1.50 blocks per set as she saw action in eight of Penn State’s nine sets.

Hodge, D’Errico and Blair Brown were named to the All-Tournament team for Penn State.

Buffalo is led by freshman Tori Beckman, who was named the MVP of the University at Buffalo Invitational. She collected 63 digs in the three matches, which amounted to 5.73 per set. She will have to have a big match against Penn State’s big hitters if Buffalo wants to have a chance.

Senior, Dani Silvers and junior, Kelsey Lueders were also named to the All-Tournament team for Buffalo. Silvers collected a career-high 22 kills in the victory over Fordham and leads the team with a .304 hitting percentage (39 kills on 92 attempts with 11 errors). She averaged 3.55 kills per set.

Lueders missed all of last season with an injury but returned to be second on the team in kills over the weekend and posted 2.55 kills per set.

As a team Buffalo enters with a .175 attack percentage and averages 1.8 blocks per set. Penn State is attacking at .376 and has 3.1 blocks per set. A look at these stats tells me to look for Penn State to continue their dominance in this one.