The No. 1 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions women’s volleyball team made quick work of the Buffalo Bulls on Friday night in Rec Hall. The match was both teams first game in the Penn State Invitational and Penn State’s home opener for 2009.

It only took 55 minutes for the Nittany Lions to win in straight sets (25-9, 25-6, 25-7) and improve their record-breaking win streak to 68 matches.

Penn State head coach, Russ Rose said he thought Buffalo seemed overwhelmed playing against the two-time defending national champions. He thought Penn State’s serve set the tone for the rest of the match.

“We were serving aggressively from the get go and that got Buffalo out of sync,” Rose said. “I was disappointed Buffalo didn’t play better because they are a better team than what they showed.”

Penn State (4-0) was led at the service line by Alyssa D’Errico’s five aces.

“With any good server once you get one ace it makes the defense step back and lose confidence,” D’Errico said.

True freshman Kristin Carpenter added two aces in her home debut, the first coming on her first serve in Rec Hall. On the serve, she nailed it just inside the sideline and out of the reach of Buffalo libero Tori Beckman to put Penn State up 2-0 in the first set.

“Carpenter is an exciting player and it was nice to see her get her first career home ace on her first serve,” Rose said.

Penn State only made one attack error in the match and hit .702 (34 kills on 47 attempts with one error) compared to 24 attack errors for Buffalo (2-2). For the match the Bulls hit in the negative at -.116 (16 kills on 69 attempts with 24 errors).

Megan Hodge led the Nittany Lions with 10 kills. Junior college transfer Fatima Balza collected five kills and four block assists and true freshman Darcy Dorton had four kills in their Rec Hall debuts.

Blair Brown was second on the team with six kills on eight attempts, but Rose thinks Brown needs to get more swings.

“For us to have success we need Blair,” he said. “She is our best blocker and can hit from antenna to antenna just like Hodge.”

Brown collected three block assists, but it was Arielle Wilson who led the Penn State block with seven. For the match the Nittany Lions out blocked the Bulls 12.5 to 0.

Alisha Glass directed the Penn State offense with 26 assists and she also added two kills, six digs and three block assists.

Kelsey Lueders led Buffalo with five kills and was one of only two Bulls with a positive hitting percentage. Marisa Hornbaker had three kills and also hit positive. Dani Silvers, one of Buffalo’s other star players struggled, with nine errors on 20 attempts and only four kills.

Lindsey Schlegel collected 13 assists and Beckman led the Bulls with three digs.

Penn State looks to continue their win streak tomorrow in a pair of games in the Penn State Invitational against Robert Morris at 10:30 a.m. and Pittsburgh at 7 p.m.

“We need to stay aggressive and keep the intensity up,” Wilson said about the upcoming games.