For the second time in four days, the Youngstown State volleyball team went toe-to-toe with one of the top three teams in the Horizon League but fell 3-2.
YSU lost in five sets pm Tuesday at Northern Kentucky, and Friday night's setback came at league-leading Milwaukee at the Klotsche Center. The set scores against the Panthers were 25-14, 20-25, 18-25, 25-15, 15-7.
After dropping the opening set 25-14, the Penguins rode a wave of momentum to take the next two sets 25-20 and 25-18. Milwaukee regrouped to win the third set 25-15, and the Panthers scored the final eight points of the fifth set after it was tied at 7-7.
YSU's Elise Moeller tied for match-high honors with 19 kills on 40 attempts, and she added 11 digs for a double-double. Abbie Householder also had a double-double for the Penguins with 13 kills and 10 digs, and Julia Sell and Jocelyn Jourdan both had six blocks.
Youngstown State finished with 11 aces, including three apiece from Josi Borum, Isabel Schaefbauer and Isidora Sisic, but Milwaukee countered with 13 aces while having just two serving errors. The Panthers had five of those aces in the fifth set.
Ari Miller paced Milwaukee with 19 kills from the middle blocker position, and Madi Malone added 15 kills, 12 digs and six aces. The Panthers maintained the top spot in the Horizon League standings by improving to 18-8 overall and 10-2 against the conference. YSU is now 7-18 overall and 2-12 in league play.
Milwaukee hit at least .400 in the three sets it won, and it hit a combined .152 in the two sets that YSU won.
The Panthers hit .414 and got six kills from Miller in the opening set, but YSU settled down early in the second set and went on a 12-3 run to go up 13-8. Householder and Moeller combined for nine kills in the second set as YSU won 25-20 to even the match, and the Penguins hit .448 collectively in the third set to win 25-18. Householder and Moeller had nine kills again in 19 swings without committing an error from the left pin, and Sell had three blocks.
Milwaukee scored eight of the first 11 points of the fourth set and went on to win 25-15 to force the fifth set, and there were four ties early before the Panthers went on their 8-0 run to end the night.
Youngstown State will play its final road match of the season on Saturday at Green Bay at 5 p.m. Eastern. The match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
