Behind a school-record 33 kills from sophomore outside hitter Paula Gursching, the Youngstown State volleyball team outlasted Robert Morris for a five-set victory on Friday evening at Beeghly Center. The set scores were 25-22, 25-17, 24-26, 20-25, 15-9.
Gursching, a native of Schwalbach am Taunus, Germany, posted the most kills in a match ever by a Penguin regardless of format or length. She had tied the record last Friday with 31 against IUPUI, and she posted 33 against the Colonials on 64 attempts. She posted a .422 attack percentage, and 51.6 percent of her attempts ended in kills. She added 20 digs for the first 30-kill, 20-dig match in program history.
While Gursching had the record-setting performance, she had plenty of notable performances from her Penguin teammates. Senior Josi Borum registered her Division I-leading sixth triple-double of the campaign with 12 kills, 25 assists and 11 digs, and she added a career-best eight blocks. Freshman middle blocker Julia Sell had 10 blocks, which is the most by a YSU player since 2016.
The victory allowed YSU to win its second consecutive match and improve to 8-10 overall and 2-5 in Horizon League play. Abby Ryan had 20 kills to lead Robert Morris, which dropped to 8-11 overall and 1-6 against conference opponents.
Youngstown State hit .284 as a team for the match and added 11 blocks defensively.
Gursching had six kills and five digs in the opening set, and Dayan Malave posted five kills in seven swings as the Penguins battled through 12 ties and five lead changes to win 25-22. YSU then hit .393 and went on a big 8-2 run midway through the second set to win 25-17 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Robert Morris didn't back down, though, and the Colonials withstood nine kills from Gursching in the third set to win 26-24 and extend the match. RMU led 20-15 before YSU battled back to tie the score at 24 on a kill by Borum. Gursching had 10 kills in the fourth set to increase her total to 29, which would have been a school record for a four-set match, but Robert Morris hit .448 as a team to win 25-20.
In the fifth, Youngstown State never trailed and held the lead for good after Gursching's 31st kill of the night gave it an 8-7 advantage. Gursching's record-breaking 32nd kill made the score 11-8, and she added another on the next rally to give the Penguins a four-point lead. Sell and Borum combined for blocks on YSU's next two points, and the match ended at 15-9 on an RMU attack error.
Youngstown State will have six days before its next match, which will be at Wright State on Oct. 14 at 6 p.m.
