The Youngstown State volleyball team fought off Purdue Fort Wayne behind solid contributions from its pin hitters in a 3-2 victory Friday evening at the Gates Sports Center. The set scores were 28-26, 11-25, 25-19, 12-25, 15-8.
The Penguins improved to 11-13 overall and 5-8 in Horizon League play with the victory, and they climbed to within a half game of fifth place in the conference standings. Purdue Fort Wayne is now 7-16 overall and 3-9 in conference matches.
Sophomore outside hitter Paula Gursching posted a match-high 26 kills and hit .286, and she added 11 digs, two aces, and two blocks in a double-double performance. Setter/right side Josi Borum notched her nation-leading ninth triple-double with 16 kills, 26 assists and 10 assists, and Abbie Householder posted three of her 12 kills in the fifth set tiebreaker to help the Penguins hold off the Mastodons.
Isabel Schaefbauer matched Borum with 26 assists as setters in the 6-2 offense, and libero Isidora Sisic was an assist away from a double-double with nine assists and 24 digs.
Sidney Schiller paced Purdue Fort Wayne with 18 kills.
Youngstown State was outhit .229 to .179 in the match, but the Penguins hit .318 in their three set wins. In the two sets that Purdue Fort Wayne won, YSU hit negative-.086.
The Penguins battled through 17 ties and five lead changes in the opening set to outlast the Mastodons 28-26. Purdue Fort Wayne scored the first three points of the evening, and that ended up being the largest margin for either team in the set. YSU had set point chances at 24-23 and 25-24, and it had to fight off a PFW set point at 26-25. Gursching's eighth kill of the set tied the score at 26, and Borum followed with back-to-back kills to give YSU a 1-0 lead in the match.
Purdue Fort Wayne had four blocks and limited the Penguins to five kills in the second set as it won 25-11, but YSU answered with a 25-19 win in the third set. The Mastodons led 7-3 early, and the margin was 10-6 in favor of the home team before YSU went on a 14-4 run to go ahead 20-14. Youngstown State's lead was at least four for the rest of the set as it went up 2-1.
The Mastodons answered the challenge in the fourth set to stay alive as they hit .458 and forced the Penguins into nine attack errors in a 25-12 win.
In the fifth set, the Penguins had four challenge calls go in their favor as they won 15-8. Both of Purdue Fort Wayne's challenges were unsuccessful, and both of YSU's resulted in score reversals. Coach Aline Scott first reached for the green challenge card on an attack by Kiyah Franklin that was initially ruled long, but the replay rewarded YSU's attacker with a kill that tied the score at 3-3. Purdue Fort Wayne led 7-6 before Youngstown State closed the match on a 9-1 run. The Penguins led 8-7 at the side switch following a Borum ace, and another successful YSU challenge on a touch at the net followed to make the score 9-7. Householder then had three kills in a four-point stretch to extend the lead to 12-8, and she served the final four points of the match.
Youngstown State will attempt a weekend sweep as it travels to IUPUI for another big road contest on Saturday. The match in The Jungle will begin at 4 p.m., and it will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
