Penguins Begin Important Road Stretch This Week in Indiana

Youngstown State at Purdue Fort Wayne, IUPUI
Match 1	Friday, Oct. 28 \| 6 p.m. \| Fort Wayne, Ind.
Opponent & Coverage	at Purdue Fort Wayne - ESPN+ \| Live Stats
Match 2	Saturday, Oct. 29 \| 4 p.m. \| Indianapolis, Ind.
Opponent & Coverage	at IUPUI - ESPN+ \| Live Stats
Live Tweets	@YSUVolleyball
Hash Tags	#GoGuins \| #HLVB
Mobile App	iOS Download \| Android Download

The Youngstown State volleyball team will start a key four-match road stretch that will play a big part in determining its postseason chances as it heads to Indiana for a pair of contests. The Penguins will play at Purdue Fort Wayne on Friday at 6 p.m. before traveling to IUPUI for another match on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Both matches this week in the Hoosier State will be streamed live on ESPN+, and live stats are available through links on YSUsports.com.

The Penguins enter the week with a 10-13 overall record and a 4-8 mark in Horizon League play that has them sitting seventh in the conference standings. They are one game behind Oakland and Cleveland State, which are tied for fifth at 5-7. Only the top six teams qualify for next month's Horizon League Volleyball Championship, and YSU's next four matches are all against teams jostling for position. The Penguins will play Purdue Fort Wayne and IUPUI, which are tied for eighth in the standings with a 3-8 mark, this week, and they'll take on Cleveland State and Robert Morris, which are tied for fifth and 10th, respectively, next week.

Recapping Last Week

Youngstown State split its two matches last week against the Horizon League's Wisconsin teams. The Penguins were disappointed with their effort in a 3-0 loss on Friday night to Green Bay, but they responded to top Milwaukee 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday's victory over Milwaukee was YSU's first against the Panthers since 2017. In the seven meetings since that 3-1 victory on Nov. 11, 2017, the Penguins had won two sets total against Milwaukee.
Youngstown State earned its 10th overall victory and its fourth win in Horizon League play when it topped Milwaukee. Both totals are high marks for the program since 2015.
YSU hit .079 against Green Bay, which was its second-lowest hitting percentage of the season and its worst mark at home. It answered with a .272 attack percentage in the four-set win over Milwaukee. Defensively, Green Bay hit .372, the highest percentage by an opponent in 2022, while Milwaukee hit .234.
Against Green Bay, Paula Gursching led all players with 18 kills in 39 swings while hitting .308, but every other YSU pin hitter had more errors than kills. Youngstown State was much more balanced against Milwaukee. Gursching still outclassed everyone on the floor with 22 kills, but Josi Borum posted 14 kills on a .481 attack percentage, Abbie Householder had nine kills, and Kiyah Franklin contributed eight.
Isabel Schaefbauer recorded the 800th assist of her career last week and enters this week with 841. She has 461 assists this season, and she recorded 380 over two seasons at Winthrop.

News & Notes

Paula Gursching has broken her own school record for most kills in a season in the rally-scoring era. Gurshing had 430 kills as a freshman in 2021, which was three more than the previous record. After recording 40 kills last week, she has upped her total to 455 in 2022. Entering this week, she has 94 more kills than any other Penguins sophomore has ever had.
Before this season, there were four times in the history of YSU volleyball that a Penguin had at least 29 kills in a match. Gursching has done it four times since Sept. 30. Her current school record for kills in a match is 35.
Gursching is averaging 5.06 kills per set this season. The current school record for kills per set over an entire season is 4.62 by Amy Hermann in 1998.
Entering this week, Gursching ranks second in the country in total kills (455), points (510.5) and attacks (1,132). She is fourth in points per set, sixth in kills per set and seventh in attacks per set. Compared with other Horizon League players, she is averaging 1.38 more kills and 1.58 more points than any other student-athlete.
Josi Borum has eight triple-doubles this season, which is twice as many as any other Division I player. Only two other players in the country, regardless of Division, have more triple-doubles than Borum in 2022. Among active Division I players, Borum ranks second with 13 career triple-doubles. Sacred Heart's Sarah Ciszek has 20, Borum has 13, and no other player has more than five.
Borum needs 30 assists to become the 13th player to reach 1,000 career assists as a Penguin. Borum had 440 assists as a freshman at Chicago State, meaning she has already reached 1,000 in her personal career. She also needs five kills to reach 500 as a Penguin and three kills to reach 800 for her career.
Libero Isidora Sisic is averaging 0.38 aces per set, which ranks fourth in the conference. She is also ninth in the circuit with 3.51 digs per set.
Youngstown State's .217 hitting percentage is the fifth-best in school history and the best since 2014.

Scouting the Opponents

Purdue Fort Wayne

Purdue Fort Wayne is 7-15 overall and 3-8 against conference teams heading into Friday night's match against Youngstown State. The Mastodons are tied for eighth in the conference standings, a half-game behind YSU and 1.5 games behind Oakland and Cleveland State.
Purdue Fort Wayne ranks third in the Horizon League in both kills (12.76) and assists (11.78) per set, and it ranks fourth in digs per set (15.73).
Reigning Horizon League Player of the Week Rachael Crucis ranks third individually in the conference with 4.83 digs per set. Offensively, two Mastodons rank among the top 10 attackers in the conference as Sidney Schiller ranks sixth in the circuit with 3.30 kills per set, and Iris Riegel is ninth with 3.06 per stanza. PFW is the only team in the league with two attackers ranking in the top 10.
First meeting: In the first meeting between YSU and Purdue Fort Wayne, the Penguins earned a 3-0 victory (25-22, 25-20, 27-25) behind 20 kills from Paula Gursching. Gursching's 20 kills came in 37 attempts, and she had just four errors to hit .432 from the outside hitter position. She also had a match-high four aces to account for 24 of Youngstown State's 60 points, and she added 11 digs for a double-double.

IUPUI

IUPUI enters this week with the same conference record as Purdue Fort Wayne at 3-8, and the Jaguars are 9-14 overall. IUPUI has lost its last six matches, including four straight 3-1, heading into its Friday night contest against Robert Morris.
IUPUI leads the Horizon League with 1.72 aces per set, and it ranks sixth in the conference in blocks and opponent hitting percentage. The Jaguars are averaging 1.95 aces per set against league opponents.
Individually, Brooke Phillips is pacing the conference with 0.46 aces per set, and Briana Brown is the top attacker with 3.40 kills per set. Addie Stevens ranks fifth in the Horizon League with 4.42 digs per set, and Morgan Ostrowski sits ninth in the circuit in blocks with 0.95 per set.
First Meeting: Youngstown State had a 2-0 lead slip away in a 3-2 loss to IUPUI in Beeghly Center on Sept. 30. The Penguins took the first two sets 27-25 and 25-13, but IUPUI stormed back by winning the final three. YSU led 18-13 in the fourth set before IUPUI rallied, and the Jaguars scored the first eight points of the fifth-set tiebreaker. Paula Gursching tied the school record with 31 kills, a number she's surpassed twice since, and YSU held the advantage in every statistical category except serving. IUPUI had eight aces and kept the Penguins out of system during the comeback.

Up Next

Youngstown State will continue its four-match road stretch next week with contests at Cleveland State and Robert Morris. The Penguins will face a tight turnaround from its Indiana trip as it will face the Vikings on Tuesday evening, and they'll play at Robert Morris next Friday, Nov. 4. That match against the Colonials will be the final road bout of the regular season