Penguins Host Cleveland State Tuesday as Part of Busy First Week of League Play

Youngstown State vs. Cleveland State \| at Milwaukee \| at Green Bay
Match 1	Tuesday, Sept. 20 \| 6 p.m. \| Youngstown, Ohio
Opponent & Coverage	vs. Cleveland State - Watch on ESPN+ \| Live Stats
Match 2	Friday, Sept. 23 \| 7 p.m. ET \| Milwaukee, Wis.
Opponent & Coverage	at Milwaukee - Watch on ESPN+ \| Live Stats
Match 3	Saturday, Sept. 24 \| 3 p.m. ET \| Green Bay, Wis.
Opponent & Coverage	at Green Bay - Watch on ESPN+ \| Live Stats
Live Tweets	@YSUVolleyball
Hash Tags	#GoGuins \| #HLVB
Mobile App	iOS Download \| Android Download

The Youngstown State volleyball team will have a busy first week to start conference play as it will play three matches in a five-day stretch. The Penguins will host Cleveland State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Beeghly Center in the Horizon League opener, and they'll play at Milwaukee and Green Bay on Friday and Saturday. All three matches will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Youngstown State posted a 6-5 record in its 11-match non-conference schedule and showed that it has the potential to be more competitive against Horizon League opponents in 2022. The Penguins have already matched last season's overall win total, and they had their most non-league wins since 2018. Their competition was challenging along the way as the NCAA indicates that YSU faced the 53rd-toughest schedule in the country in the first four weeks of the season. Seven of the 11 opponents on YSU's schedule currently have a record of 7-4 or better.

Fan Information

Gameday Guide

There will be free admission to Tuesday night's match against Cleveland State.
The first 200 fans in attendance at the match will receive a YSU Volleyball t-shirt

Recapping Last Week

at Akron on Thursday, Sept. 15: W, 3-0 | 25-20, 25-19, 25-19 | Recap | Box Score
vs. Kent State on Friday, Sept. 16: L, 2-3 | 22-25, 25-20, 25-22, 16-25, 15-7 | Recap | Box Score

Youngstown State wrapped up its non-league schedule by splitting a pair of matches against its two closest Division I rivals. The Penguins earned a three-set sweep at Akron before falling at home in five sets to Kent State.
The Penguins earned their second-ever road sweep of Akron by winning 25-20, 25-19, 25-19. YSU had a season-best .379 attack percentage, which was also their seventh-best mark ever in rally-scoring, against the Zips.
YSU hit .310 combined in its two matches last week. After the .379 mark against Akron, YSU hit .268, the highest percentage Kent State allowed during its non-league schedule, in the five-set loss to the Golden Flashes on Friday.
Five different Penguins reached double digits in digs against Kent State, and freshman Abbie Householder led the way with 15 digs.
Youngstown State blocked 10 Kent State attacks on Friday, and Paula Gursching had four solo blocks. That was the highest individual total by a Penguin in six years. YSU has reached double digits in blocks three times this season, which is already more times than each of the las three campaigns.
Gursching continued her early-season tear by averaging 5.63 kills and 6.75 points per set in the two matches. In the sweep at Akron, she tied the school record for most kills in a three-set, rally-scoring match with 21. She then added 24 kills in the five-setter against Kent State to bring her weekly total to 45 kills in eight sets. She had 104 attempts, meaning she scored on 43.3 percent of her high-volume of swings. She registered an impressive .317 attack percentage against the pair of Mid-American Conference opponents.
Josi Borum recorded her second triple-double in as many weeks by posting 10 kills, 10 digs and 28 assists against Kent State. Borum has recorded three of the five triple-doubles in school history, and she is one of nine players in the country this season to have multiple triple-doubles.
Householder had double-doubles in both matches last week, and she's had double digits in kills and digs in three of her last four matches. The freshman outside hitter had 10 kills and 11 digs in the three-set win over Akron, and she recorded 12 kills and 15 digs in the five-setter against Kent State. A six-rotation player, Householder had just three receiving errors in 75 chances.
Nadia Pace recorded the 100th block of her collegiate career. She had seven blocks in the two matches last week to bring her career total to 105. She had 12 blocks as a freshman at Bethune-Cookman, and she has 93 as a Penguin.
All four Penguins who had at least 30 attacks last week hit better than .300. Gursching hit .317 on 104 attempts, Householder posted a .327 attack percentage on 55 attempts, Borum hit at a .441 clip on 34 swings, and Dayan Malave posted a .387 attack percentage on 31 attempts.

News & Notes

Josi Borum is one of 20 players in the country this season to record a triple-double, and she is one of just nine to register at least two. She has recorded a triple-double in two of her last three matches, posting 10 kills, 16 digs and 25 assists on Sept. 10 against Bucknell and 10 kills, 10 digs and 28 assists versus Kent State on Friday. Karla Everhart (2008) was the only YSU player on record to have a triple-double, and the Penguins have now had four since March 2021. Three of those belong to Borum, and the other was by Paula Gursching.
Gursching surpassed 600 career kills in just her 40th career match on Friday against Kent State. She had 430 kills as a freshman, which was 67 more than any other YSU freshman has ever had, and she has 177 in the first 11 matches of her sophomore season. Gursching is averaging 4.16 kills per set so far in her career, which is significantly higher than Vickie Robinson's current school record of 3.33 kills per set over a career. Ruth Boscaljon is the only other player to reach 600 kills by the end of her sophomore year, finishing with 724 in 2006-07.
Gursching was certainly one of the Horizon League's top individuals during the non-conference portion of the schedule. The only conference player to be named a league player of the week twice, she enters Horizon League play leading the circuit in kills (4.43) and points (5.16) per set while also ranking second in aces per set (0.43) and sixth in attack percentage (.271). She had 164 more attempts than any other player ranking in the top 10 in attack percentage.
On the national level, Gursching ranks 12th among all Division I players with 5.16 points per set. She is 16th nationally with 4.42 kills per set, and the sophomore ranks 24th in attacks per set with 11.45.
Tuesday's match will feature two of the top freshman outside hitters in the Horizon League in YSU's Abbie Householder and Cleveland State's Laken Voss. Voss leads all conference freshmen with 3.43 kills per set, and Householder leads the group with 2.91 digs per set. They are the only two freshmen averaging at least 2.0 kills and 2.0 digs per set.
Libero Isidora Sisic has reached double digits in digs in each of the last seven matches and nine times overall in the first 11 contests of the season. Sisic is averaging 3.49 digs per set, and her 143 digs in 2022 are more than her previous three collegiate seasons combined (141).

Scouting the Opponents

Cleveland State

Cleveland State went 3-8 in its non-league slate and, like YSU, beat Akron and lost to Kent State last week. YSU and Cleveland State both played Buffalo, Akron, Valparaiso and Kent State during the non-conference schedule, and YSU went 1-3 against those opponents while the Vikings went 1-5 (they played Buffalo and Akron twice).
As a team, Cleveland State was strong defensively compared with the rest of the Horizon League in non-league play. The Vikings are tied-for-second in the league with 2.38 blocks per set, and they are third in opponent hitting percentage at .181.
Freshman outside hitter Laken Voss, the daughter of CSU head coach Chuck Voss, leads the Vikings and ranks fourth in the Horizon League with 3.30 kills per set. Cleveland State has two players ranking in the top four of the conference in blocks per set as Lydia Latimer is second (1.18 bps) and Madison Olinger is tied for fourth (1.10 bps).
Cleveland State was picked to finish seventh in the Horizon League Preseason Poll.
Series Note: The Penguins will be trying to snap a seven-match losing streak against the Vikings at Beeghly Center that dates back to a 3-0 YSU win in 2013. Youngstown State has beaten Cleveland State four times since then, but all four wins have been on the road or at neutral sites.

Milwaukee

Milwaukee went 1-10 against a grueling non-conference slate that featured two teams ranked in the top 25 poll, three more that were receiving votes and seven opponents from high-major conferences. The Panthers' win was a four-set victory over Bradley on Sept. 2.
Milwaukee won the conference's regular-season title in 2021 and return reigning Horizon League Player of the Year and Offensive Player of the Year Ari Miller, as well as last year's Freshman of the Year, Madi Malone. Miller is averaging a team-best 2.76 kills on a .300 attack percentage and 0.88 blocks this season, and Malone is averaging 2.71 kills per set.
Despite its tough strength of schedule, Milwaukee still enters league play possessing the third-best attack percentage in the conference at .197.
The Panthers were picked to finish second in the Horizon League's Preseason Coaches Poll. The Panthers will play Purdue Fort Wayne on Tuesday before the Penguins come to town.

Green Bay

Green Bay went 9-4 in non-conference play and had one of the league's premier wins with a 3-1 victory over Alabama on Sept. 9. The Phoenix went unbeaten in their home tournament last weekend with sweeps of North Dakota and Western Illinois and four-set victories over Drake and SIUE.
Green Bay, which was picked to finish fourth in the league's preseason poll, leads the conference in hitting percentage (.250), assists (12.40 per set), kills (13.12 per set) and blocks (2.51) while also ranking second in opponent hitting percentage (.175).
Individually, Angie Gromos (.362) and Tiffany Paalman (.350) are the top two players in the league in attack percentage, and Alexandra Zakutney ranks sixth in the circuit with 3.20 kills per set. Defensively, Gromos tops the chart with 1.28 blocks per set while Paalman ranks fourth with 1.10 per stanza.
The Phoenix will play at IUPUI on Tuesday and host Robert Morris on Friday before their match against Youngstown State.

Up Next

Next week, Youngstown State will play three more Horizon League matches as part of a four-match homestand. The Penguins will continue their busy stretch by hosting Oakland next Tuesday, Sept. 27, and they'll take on IUPUI and Purdue Fort Wayne on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, respectively.