Youngstown State University
Central Michigan
First Road Matches Await Volleyball This Weekend
9/1/2022 11:47:00 AM | Volleyball
YSU / DoubleTree-Youngstown Volleyball Invitational
| Opponent | Date | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Friday Sept. 2 | 11 AM ET |
Chaifetz Pavilion St. Louis, Mo. |
None | Live Stats |
 |
Friday Sept. 2 | 8 PM ET |
Chaifetz Pavilion St. Louis, Mo. |
ESPN+ | Live Stats |
 |
Saturday Sept. 3 | 2 PM ET |
Chaifetz Pavilion St. Louis, Mo. |
None | Live Stats |
The Youngstown State volleyball team will play on the road for the first time this season as it travels to St. Louis to face a challenging field at the Billiken Invitational. The Penguins will play Central Michigan and Saint Louis on Friday before wrapping up their time in Missouri against St. Thomas on Saturday. Live stats will be available throughout the tournament, and YSU's match against the Billikens on Friday evening will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Youngstown State went 2-1 to open the 2022 campaign, the fifth under head coach Aline Scott, at the YSU / DoubleTree-Youngstown Volleyball Invitational. The Penguins swept Idaho in their season opener, and they outlasted Delaware State in a five-set win last Friday evening. YSU then fell 3-1 to Valparaiso in the championship match on Saturday as the Beacons won the final two sets.
Paula Gursching and Josi Borum were YSU's representatives on the all-tournament team last weekend, and Gursching went on to be named a Nike® Horizon League Player of the Week. Gursching and Borum are two of 11 student-athletes returning from last year's team that finished 6-23 but gained momentum and showed improvement over the final four weeks of 2021.
Recapping Last Week
Match 1 vs. Idaho on Friday, Aug. 26: W, 3-0 | 25-14, 25-22, 25-17
Match 2 vs. Delaware State on Friday, Aug. 26: W, 3-2 | 25-19, 25-22, 21-25, 20-25, 16-14
Match 3 vs. Valparaiso on Saturday, Aug. 27: L, 1-3 | 25-18, 21-25, 25-10, 25-18
- With its win over Idaho, YSU improved to 4-1 in season-opening matches under head coach Aline Scott. Going back further, the Penguins are 8-2 in season openers over the last decade.
- Although a tournament championship was the goal, YSU was encouraged by its play over the weekend. The Penguins hit .212 as a team, up from .181 a year ago, and they averaged 1.83 blocks, an improvement from 1.35 in 2021. YSU outlasted Delaware State, which returned many prominent players from a team that won 26 matches last season, for a 3-2 victory. The Penguins were also competitive in three sets with Valparaiso, which advanced to the championship match of the NIVC in 2021.
- YSU has 17 student-athletes on its roster, and 16 of them saw action in the match against Valparaiso. After the Penguins fell 25-10 in the third set to get behind 2-1 in the match, Scott made a major lineup shift due to fatigue in the primary rotation. In that final set against the Beacons, Cameren George, Julia Sell, Aimee Beaupre, Amanda Lebioda and Lauren Lask each made their season debuts.
- The Penguins got solid production from their middle blockers last week as Nadia Pace delivered 0.91 blocks per set, and Dayan Malave averaged 0.82 blocks per set. Offensively, Pace averaged 1.27 kills per set while hitting .333, and Malave averaged 1.36 kills per set on a .324 attack percentage.
- Paula Gursching set a new school record for attempts in a rally-scoring match with 72 in the five-set victory over Delaware State. She had at least 11 attempts in each set, including 19 in the fourth and 16 in the fifth. Gursching now holds five of the six single-match school records for attempts in just 32 career matches.
- Isidora Sisic started all three matches at libero last weekend after never having started at the position in her Penguins' career. Sisic averaged a team-high 3.42 digs per set, and she delivered solid passing in serve receive.
- Josi Borum's all-around game was on full display the opening weekend. She led the Penguins with 0.45 aces per set, and she was second in kills (17) and assists (51) and third in digs (30) and blocks (8). Borum set while she was in the back row as part of YSU 6-2 offense, and she played on the right side when she rotated to the front row.
- Isabel Schaefbauer averaged 5.25 assists and 2.83 digs per set during her opening weekend as a Penguin. The transfer from Winthrop was one of three Penguins to appear in all 12 sets last weekend, and she had 10 assists as YSU hit .258 when it ran a 5-1 offense during the final set against Valparaiso.
- Freshman Abbie Householder provided a boost off the bench for the Penguins against both Delaware State and Valparaiso. She had 10 kills, including the final two of the match, over three sets in the win over DSU on Friday. She then had five kills and had just one receiving error in 17 attempts on Saturday against Valpo. She averaged 2.50 kills per set in her six sets.
Scouting the Opponents
Central Michigan
Central Michigan went 2-1 at the season-opening Memphis Tiger Brawl last weekend with wins over Eastern Washington and Memphis and a loss to Nicholls. Transfer outside hitter Mallory Hernandez averaged 4.23 kills and hit .398 to earn MAC West Offensive Player of the Week honors, and Aly Gurtiza was named the division's Defensive Player of the Week while averaging 5.15 digs per set. The Chippewas were picked to finish fifth in the MAC West. Youngstown State is 0-3 all-time against CMU, which includes a 3-0 loss in 2019 and a 3-1 setback last season in Mount Pleasant, Mich.
Saint Louis
Saint Louis is the only team in the field that went unbeaten during the opening week of the season. The Billikens swept Little Rock and Mississippi Valley State, and they defeated Arkansas State 3-2 at ASU's tournament. Saint Louis had 37 aces last weekend, which was the highest total in the country, and it had 16 aces in the 3-0 victory over MVSU. Mak Hill led Saint Louis offensively with 3.11 kills per set, and Carlie Rodgers averaged 4.56 digs per set. The Billikens, who return five starters from last year's squad that finished with an 18-12 record, were picked to place fourth in the preseason Atlantic 10 poll. Youngstown State is 1-0 all-time against the Billikens with the lone meeting resulting in a 3-1 Penguins victory on Sept. 14, 2013, in St. Louis.
St. Thomas
St. Thomas went 1-2 last weekend at Montana State's Bobcat Classic, falling 3-0 to Grand Canyon and San Francisco while beating the hosts 3-2. The Tommies started five underclassmen in two of their matches last weekend, and freshman middle blocker Emma Goerger was named to the all-tournament team. St. Thomas, which is in its second season at the Division I level, returns eight players who appeared in at least 19 matches last season. The Tommies went 3-25 last season and were picked to finish ninth in the Summit League preseason poll. YSU and St. Thomas have never met on the volleyball court.
Evergreen Notes
Bulk of Offense Returns from Improved Unit
The Penguins had their best offense in Coach Aline Scott's four-tenure in 2021, having their best attack percentage since 2015, their most kills per attempt since 2016 and their most aces per set since 2001. Youngstown State had a .181 overall attack percentage and improved to .187 in league play, marking just the fourth time in YSU's 21 years in the conference that it hit a higher percentage in league play. That mark was bolstered over the final nine matches of the campaign as YSU hit .210 once Josi Borum settled in as the everyday setter.
Gursching Took Horizon League by Storm
Paula Gursching was the catalyst for the offense as she turned in one of the best seasons in program history regardless of class as a freshman in 2021. Gursching was named All-Horizon League and to the conference's All-Freshman Team after pacing the league in kills (4.06) and points (4.70) per set. Gursching broke numerous school records during the season, including shattering the previous mark for kills by a freshman by 67. Her 430 total kills were the most by a Penguin since 1998, the third-most ever and the most since rally-scoring began in 2001. Gursching was just the second freshman since 2010 to lead the Horizon League in kills per set, and she was the only freshman in that time frame to pace the conference in points per set. On the national level, only three freshmen in the country had more total kills or kills per set than Gursching.
Echevarria Joins Staff
Head Coach Aline Scott has a new assistant on the bench this season as Jesus Echevarria has joined the staff. Echevarria arrives from Evansville, where he spent two seasons developing the Purple Aces into a postseason program. With Echevarria as a graduate assistant in 2021, Evansville improved from six wins to 21 and went on to win two matches in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship. Current Penguin Elise Moeller was at Evansville for each of Echevarria's two seasons there.
Catching the National Spotlight in Kent
Youngstown State caught national attention for a night in September when it served 24 aces in a four-set match against Duquesne in a neutral-site match at Kent State. The 24 aces were five more than any other team had in a match of any length during the season, and it topped the previous school record for aces in a match by seven. YSU was just two aces shy of the NCAA record for aces in a four-set match. Gursching had 13 of those aces, the most by a Division I player in a four-set match since 2003, as part of a triple-double.
Improvement in Second Half
The win over Duquesne on Sept. 17 avenged a three-set loss to the Dukes in the opening match of the season, and it gave an early glimpse of YSU's improvement over the season. After being swept in eight of their first 10 Horizon League matches, YSU went at least four sets in seven straight matches in the second half of the conference slate. The Penguins beat Purdue Fort Wayne and Robert Morris, teams they lost to in the first meeting, and they took Green Bay and Oakland to five sets after being swept earlier in the season.
International Flavor
The YSU volleyball program is a melting pot of cultures with six countries being represented on the bench. Josi Borum, Ellie Cox, Kiyah Franklin, Cameren George, Abbie Householder, Caitlyn Jones, Lauren Lask, Kiley Mitchell, Elise Moeller, Nadia Pace, Isabel Schaefbauer and Julia Sell are from the United States; Head Coach Aline Scott and Amanda Lebioda are from Brazil; Assistant Coach Jesus Echevarria and Dayan Malave hail from Puerto Rico; Aimee Beaupre is from Canada; Paula Gursching is a native of Germany; and Isidora Sisic is from Serbia.
Borum Fills Many Roles
Senior Josi Borum has filled many roles in her first two seasons as a Penguin. She has started at each pin, has been a setter in a 6-2 offense and been the primary setter in a 5-1. Last season she was one of two players to appear in all 106 sets, and she ranked second on the team in kills (177), assists (403), aces (24) and blocks (41) while leading the team with 303 digs. As the full-time setter over the final nine matches of 2021, she averaged 9.76 assists per set over her final nine matches as YSU hit .210 as a team.
Jones Settled In At Libero
Sophomore Caitlyn Jones served as the Penguins' libero over most of the final month of last season. Over her final nine matches of the season, she reached double digits in digs in each match and averaged 4.58 digs per set in that nine-match stretch. She posted 31 digs, the third-most in a rally-scoring match in program history, at Oakland on Oct. 24.
Quick Hitters
- Academically, the Penguins earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the ninth consecutive campaign in 2021-22.
- Nadia Pace was voted to the Horizon League All-Academic Team for her combined accomplishments on the court and in the classroom. Pace was YSU's fifth All-Academic honoree since 2018
- Pace is serving as the Vice President of the Horizon League's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee in 2022-23.
- Aimee Beaupre, Josi Borum, Lauren Lask and Isidora Sisic are serving as team captains this season. All four players are listed as seniors on the roster.
- While YSU has seven seniors on its roster, Beaupre and Ellie Cox are the only two players who have been with the program for four years. The pair came in together and were freshmen on the 2019 squad. The other five seniors - Borum, Lask, Lebioda, Pace and Sisic - all transferred in prior to the 2020-21 season.
Up Next
Youngstown State will play three matches in Buffalo next week at the 2022 Western New York Invitational. The Penguins will play at the University at Buffalo on Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. (the match was moved up an hour from a noon start), and they'll then travel across town to play at Canisius at 4 p.m. YSU's weekend in Buffalo will finish on Saturday at 2 p.m. with a match against Bucknell that will be played at Canisius.
