Penn State women’s volleyball has been having a lot of success as of late, winning six of its last seven matches. However, it has had to work harder for it than it should have, something that became evident last week.

Last week, the Nittany Lions played the two worst teams in the Big Ten — Rutgers and Ohio State — who have a combined 1-19 record in Big Ten play. Even though they beat Rutgers and Ohio State, their slow starts and errors that doomed them to their seven losses this season almost came back to haunt them in these matches.

In their sweep over Rutgers, the blue and white got off to a slow start, facing a 20-14 deficit in the first set before overcoming this deficit to win the first set and sweep the Scarlet Knights. This slow start became apparent once again against Ohio State, as the Nittany Lions lost the first set to a Buckeyes team that was winless in Big Ten play and had won only five sets heading into this match. This forced Penn State to do something it hadn’t done all season: win a match after losing the first set.

While this was the first time this season that Penn State came back to win a match after losing the first set, it made the match closer than it should’ve been. The team made a lot of self-inflicted mistakes, surrendering 34 points from service and attack errors. Heading into the second half of conference play, Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley knows her team needs to make improvements in these areas.

“It was nice to see us bounce back and find ways to score, but again, we make way too many errors in some areas of the game that just need to be better,” Schumacher-Cawley said. “I think there has to be a better focus and warm-up. I think that when the clock starts, when they’re on the floor, they need to be a little bit more prepared, individually and collectively.”

Even though Kennedy Martin led the way for the Nittany Lions in last weekend’s wins, there was an unexpected bright spot that played a crucial part in these wins: freshman middle blocker Gabrielle Nichols. She got her first two career starts last weekend, taking over Maggie Mendelson, and made the most of it, showing the amount of depth the team has.

In the Rutgers sweep, she had her best performance as a Nittany Lion as she recorded 10 kills, which was the second-most on the team behind Martin. She followed that up against Ohio State with eight kills and an efficient hitting percentage of .375. Along with that, she recorded the game-clinching kills in both matches. Nichols talked about how she felt during her first two career starts and what it did for her confidence.

“I felt really good. We practiced situations like that all the time, and all of my teammates make me feel more than comfortable competing with them,” Nichols said. “My confidence was already pretty high, never getting too high or too low in whatever situation I’m put in. So, just a solid level of self-confidence I had, I maintained throughout the weekend.”

Despite these wins, things won’t get easier for Penn State heading into the second half of Big Ten play. On Friday, it will hit the road to take on a Michigan team that has an 8-2 record at home and is coming off back-to-back sweeps over Ohio State and Illinois. Additionally, it has almost an identical record to Penn State’s at 14-7, with only one more win.

After that, the Nittany Lions will face a ranked opponent on Sunday at Rec Hall for the first time since October 10, when they take on No. 24-ranked Indiana. The Hoosiers have overachieved this season, with a 16-4 record and defeating two ranked opponents. They also have the same conference record as the Nittany Lions at 7-3. For those reasons, Schumacher-Cawley knows that her team will need to play its best to win these matches.

Heading into the final 10 matches, Schumacher-Cawley and Nichols talked about the goals they want for the team to be successful for the rest of the season.

“Attack it as a new part of the season. We have 10 matches to separate ourselves and put ourselves in the best position to be in the NCAA Tournament,” Schumacher-Cawley said.

“One step better every single day, taking it one day at a time in practice, and we should be successful,” Nichols said.