The Youngstown State volleyball team put forth a valiant effort but came up short in an upset bid against Oakland on Sunday afternoon at Beeghly Center. The Golden Grizzlies won the five-setter 25-27, 25-14, 21-25, 25-19, 15-12.

With the Penguins running a 5-1 offense instead of their standard 6-2, Heather Splinter posted a career-high 48 assists to go along with 10 digs and seven kills. Margaux Thompson and Sam Brown both had 15 kills, and Thompson added 17 digs to join Splinter with a double-double. Brown posted four of YSU's 10 aces, and Sarah Varcolla contributed 11 kills on a .346 attack percentage. Lauren Blanco had 24 digs to up her career total to 999.

Darien Bandel had a match-high 25 kills on a .375 attack percentage, and Courtney Wightman recorded 19 kills on a .429 attack percentage to lead Oakland. The Golden Grizzlies hit .335 as a team.

The match had 17 ties and 10 lead changes, and the majority of those happened in the first set when there were 11 ties and eight lead changes. Oakland's largest lead in the opening set was 17-11, but Youngstown State went on a 10-2 run out of a timeout to take a 21-19 advantage. Brown concluded that run with three straight aces. Oakland's final lead came at 24-23, and back-to-back kills by Brown and Varcolla gave the Penguins a 27-25 win.

Wightman had eight of her kills in the second set at Oakland won 25-14, but YSU took the third 25-21 to regain an advantage in the match. After taking a 2-1 lead, the Penguins did not trail again in the set and led by five on five occasions. Varcolla's fourth kill of the set came on YSU's second set point. The Penguins hit .368 in the set and overcame Oakland's .467 clip.

Bandel had seven kills in the fourth set as Oakland scored 10 of the final 15 points to even the match. The Penguins scored the first two points of the fifth, but Oakland scored the next four points and did not trail again. YSU was able to tie the score at 8-8 on a kill by Thompson, and Oakland had a big save on a potential ace when the score was 13-11. Oakland libero Darrin Rice dove forward on a Blanco serve to keep the ball up, and it deflected off Jordan Lentz and was passed over by Sammy Condon. The play ended with Lentz and Condon blocking Brown to set up match point. A Morgan Tippie kill extended the match, but Bandel's 25th kill of the match gave the Golden Grizzlies this win.

Youngstown State will play at Wright State on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The Penguins' regular-season finale will be Saturday at Beeghly Center against Milwaukee.