The Youngstown State volleyball team stayed hot offensively and won for the fourth straight match, beating rival Cleveland State in four sets on Friday evening at the Woodling Gymnasium. The set scores were 24-26, 25-22, 26-24, 25-15.

The win improves the Penguins' record to 14-8 overall and 5-2 in Horizon League play, which is currently a half game behind league-leading Milwaukee in the conference standings. Cleveland State is now 10-10 overall and 3-4 in the conference.

Youngstown State posted a .295 attack percentage against the Vikings, who were holding opponents to a .177 mark over their first 19 matches. Five different Penguins had at least eight kills, and Sam Brown had a double-double with 13 kills and 10 digs. Aly Ryan had 10 kills in 14 attempts for an impressive .714 attack percentage while adding five blocks. Setter Val Jeffery, the defending Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week, finished with 49 assists, including 19 in the first set. Nikki Thompson, the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week, had 14 digs.

Grace Kauth led Cleveland State with a match-high 15 kills. The Vikings hit .341 in the first set but just .089 over the final three.

"We had another great team effort tonight," YSU head coach Mark Hardaway said. "Cleveland State really put a lot of pressure on us, and it was good to see the team weather the storm. Our middles did a great job, which really opened up a lot for our pin hitters. I'm really pleased with how well our team is communicating."

Cleveland State out-blocked YSU 4-0 in the first set and scored the final three points of the set to go up 1-0 in the match. The Penguins had 20 kills in the set, including six apiece from Ryan and Watson, but they could never pull away from the Vikings. The largest lead for either team in the set was two, and there were 16 ties in the set.

Lexi Egler had five kills for YSU in the second set, and her fifth capped a 3-0 run that gave YSU a 21-16 advantage. Lauren Thompson put the Penguins ahead 24-19, and she had another kill to finish off the set at 25-22.

There were 15 ties and seven lead changes in the third set, and YSU flipped the script from the first set by scoring the final three points to win 26-24. On Cleveland State's set point, Ryan and Lauren Thompson blocked Ally Beck, and an attack error gave YSU a set point. Brown delivered with her third kill of the set to put the Penguins up 2-1 in the match.

YSU then scored six straight points behind Jessie Gerig's serve to go up 8-3 in the fourth set, and Cleveland State got no closer than four the rest of the way.

After being out-blocked 4-0 in the opening set, YSU held a 9-4 edge over the final three sets.

Youngstown State will begin the second half of Horizon League play on the road next week at Wright State and Oakland.