The Youngstown State volleyball team has won five straight Horizon League matches for the first time in school history and maintained pace atop the conference standings with a four-set win at Wright State on Friday evening. The set scores were 25-17, 26-24, 22-25, 25-22.

YSU is now 15-8 overall and 6-2 in Horizon League play, and the stage is set for a big midseason bout at Oakland on Saturday. The Golden Grizzlies are also 6-2 in the conference after beating Cleveland State in five sets on Friday.

Penguins senior Lexi Egler had a match-high 18 kills, and junior Nikki Thompson led all players with 23 digs against the Raiders. Youngstown State posted 12 blocks, seven of which came from Aly Ryan, and Val Jeffery had seven kills and seven digs to go along with 39 assists.

Megan Hopkins led Wright State offensively with 15 kills.

"I'm happy with how the team responded late in the final three sets because Wright State was the more-aggressive team tonight," YSU head coach Mark Hardaway said. "We were a little out of sync offensively but made the plays when we needed them down the stretch. We were just really high-error tonight, but we're happy to get the win and stay at the top of the standings. Now we're really looking forward to the showdown with Oakland tomorrow."

Youngstown State led 10-3 in the first set, but Wright State showed that it would battle all night when it got back with 11-9. The Penguins were never caught, and they scored seven straight points to go up 20-11.

YSU then scored six of the first seven points in the second set and led 11-5, but the Penguins had to play catch-up late. Wright State scored five straight points to go up 20-17, and the Raiders still led by three at 22-19. Youngstown State tied the set at 23, and it scored three straight points when WSU got to set point. Egler had two of her six kills in the set in those final three points.

"Lauren Blanco came off the bench in set two and really sparked the team with great effort," Hardaway said. "I thought that was huge."

Wright State had control for much of the third set and led 19-12 at one point. The Penguins were able to fight back to get the score 20-18 and regain some momentum, but Wright State held on to win 25-22 and prolong the match.

The fourth set had 13 ties and five lead changes, and neither team led by more than two until Wright State went ahead 18-15. Youngstown State scored three of the next four points out of a timeout to tie the score, and it pulled ahead 21-20 on a Katie Klusman attack error. That was YSU's first lead since the score was 8-7. Youngstown State did not trail again, and it scored the last three points to win the match. A service error gave YSU a 23-22 lead, and an ace by Jessie Gerig and a kill by Sam Brown finished off the victory.

Youngstown State and Oakland will play at 4 p.m. at the Athletics Center O'Rena. Live coverage will be available on the HLN on ESPN3.