Youngstown State University
12-10, 2-6HL
Green Bay
12-10, 3-5HL
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green Bay | 25 | 25 | 23 | 16 | 21 | 3 |
| Youngstown State | 22 | 22 | 25 | 25 | 19 | 2 |
Volleyball's Comeback Falls Short in Five-Set Loss to Green Bay
10/19/2012 12:00:00 AM | Volleyball
Youngstown -- Youngstown State and Green Bay battled through 44 ties and 22 lead changes, and a 21-19 fifth set went to the Phoenix as they beat the Penguins on Friday evening at Beeghly Center.
YSU dropped the first two sets 25-22, won the third 25-23 and stormed to a 25-16 win in the fourth. The Penguins rallied from a 12-9 deficit in the fifth and had three match points before ultimately falling.
Green Bay improved to 3-5 in Horizon League matches with the victory while YSU dropped to 2-6. The Phoenix also beat the Penguins in five sets in Green Bay last month.
Missy Hundelt finished with 19 kills, 20 digs and five blocks for Youngstown State while Erika West posted 25 digs. Aly Ryan had six blocks, and Alexis Egler registered 12 kills and 13 digs. Nichele Johnson had two kills and five blocks in the final three sets. Erin Muir had a career-best 36 assists.
Carmen Leitermann had 17 kills and seven blocks, and Brittany Groth was one of five Phoenix players with at least 12 digs, finishing with 22.
YSU led 13-9 and 18-16 in the first set before allowing Green Bay to rally. Erin Muir's serve hit the top of the tape and fell back for an error, and that started a five-point run for the Phoenix. Leitermann had two kills and a block during the run. Green Bay's third block of the set gave it a 23-19 lead, and YSU was only able to get within 24-22.
Green Bay jumped out to a 6-3 lead in the second set, but YSU went on a 7-2 run to go up 10-8 on an Aly Ryan kill. YSU led until Green Bay went up 14-13, but the Penguins regained the lead at 16-15. A Leitermann kill put the Phoenix up 22-18, and YSU got within 23-21 and 24-22 before losing 25-22.
The Penguins jumped out to a 17-11 lead in the third set after a Shannon Watson kill, but Green Bay scored seven straight points behind a strong block to go up 18-17. The Penguins scored three straight points to go ahead 20-18, and they didn't trail again the rest of the set. Egler and Watson had back-to-back kills to finish the set once it was tied at 23. Watson had six kills in the set.
YSU then broke the fourth set open midway through to win 25-16. The Penguins led 13-10, then scored three straight points as part of a 7-3 run that put them up 20-13.
The Penguins kept the momentum and scored the first two points of the fifth set, but they had a ball fall to the ground off of a solid dig by Erin Muir to give Green Bay a side out. The Phoenix scored three more points to go up 4-2, and they didn't trail again until YSU had four straight kills to take a 13-12 advantage. The Penguins then had set points at 14-13, 15-14 and 17-16, but Green Bay survived each one. The Phoenix had kills to save the first two, and Casey D'Ambrose served just long on the third. YSU also saved three match points before Monica Anderson's kill made the score 21-19.
Youngstown State will try to rebound on Saturday when it hosts Milwaukee at 2 p.m.
