The Youngstown State volleyball team held a 2-0 lead but couldn't finish on Friday evening as IUPUI rallied to win the final three sets at Beeghly Center. The set scores were 25-27, 13-25, 25-20, 25-23, 15-8.

Penguins sophomore Paula Gursching had a career-best 31 kills in 66 attempts to lead all players, and YSU held the advantage in every statistical category except serving. Youngstown State had advantages of 65-60 in kills, .287-.213 in attack percentage, 61-51 in assists, 79-65 in digs and 11-5 in blocks.

IUPUI, which came into the match averaging 1.74 aces per set, had eight aces on Friday and kept the Penguins off balance and out of system during the comeback. The Jaguars had just six errors against the eight aces while YSU had seven aces and 12 errors.

Briana Brown led the Jaguars offensively with 22 kills, and she added 10 digs.

Youngstown State scored the first five points of the match, but it had to rally late to take a 1-0 set lead. The Jaguars led 19-14 following a kill by Morgan Ostrowski, but a block by Kiyah Franklin and Julia Sell sparked the Penguins. An ace by Josi Borum allowed YSU to tie the set at 23, and the Penguins saved two set points before back-to-back Gursching kills and an ace by Cameren George finished the set at 27-25.

Gursching had eight kills in the opening set, and she followed that with 10 more in the second set as the Penguins cruised to a 25-13 victory.

Youngstown State's passing struggled in the third set as IUPUI hit .389, and the Penguins let a late lead slip away in the fourth. An Abbie Householder kill gave YSU an 18-13 advantage, but the Jaguars scored four of the next five points to get within two at 19-17. The Penguins then had an in-out call overturned that would have given them a 21-17 advantage, and IUPUI used the successful challenge as part of a 9-2 run that saw a 19-15 YSU lead turn into a 24-21 Jaguars advantage. An IUPUI attack error and a Gursching kill got YSU to within a point at 24-23, but setter Sydney Veatch's kill ended the set.

IUPUI won the coin toss for the fifth set tiebreaker and elected to serve, and the Jaguars scored the first eight points of the set on their way to victory.

Youngstown State will try to split the weekend as it hosts Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday at 4 p.m.