Youngstown, Ohio — Abbie Householder posted match-high totals of 16 kills and 20 digs to lead the Youngstown State volleyball team to a 3-1 victory over IU Indy on Friday evening at Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. The set scores against the Jaguars were 25-21, 25-21, 18-25, 25-16.
Householder's 16 kills came on 44 attempts, and she had just one attack error to finish with a .341 attack percentage. The Penguins hit .260 as a team, and they had just nine attack errors in 150 attempts.
Youngstown State won its first Horizon League match under head coach Riley Jarrett with the 3-1 victory.
While Householder drew attention at the left pin, YSU's middle blockers Dayan Malave and Kelsey Cooper each had nine kills in 18 attempts. Malave added a match-high six blocks, and the Penguins held an 8-1 advantage in blocks.
Both teams had high dig totals, and nine players had at least 12 in the match. In addition to Householder for the Penguins, Bianca Giglio finished with 15, and Isabel Schaefbauer and Nyia Setla both had 12. Schaefbauer also registered 36 assists and three blocks.
Morgan Ostrowski paced IU Indy with 15 kills, and the Jaguars had a 54-48 edge in kills. However, the Jags had 28 attack errors, 19 more than the Penguins. Maia Long added 13 kills, and Grace Purichia registered five of IU Indy's nine aces.
There were only seven ties and five lead changes in the match, and the first set had four of those ties and two of the lead changes.
YSU went on a 5-0 run behind Cooper's serve to take an 11-6 lead in the opening set, and the Penguins held the upper hand the rest of the way. IU Indy got within one at 14-13 on a kill by Kate White, but a kill and an ace by Householder upped the margin back to 16-13 and the margin remained at least two.
The Penguins then scored the first two points and seven of the first nine in the second set, and they did not trail. After Giglio's kill gave YSU its 7-2 advantage, the Penguins led by at least four until IU Indy made it 24-21 late.
IU Indy scored four of the first five points of the third set and won 25-18 to extend the match, but the Penguins used an early 6-1 run in the fourth to go up -3 and led the rest of the contest. YSU scored 10 of the final 14 points of the night.
