Penguins Look to Build Momentum at EKU Tournament

The Youngstown State volleyball team will head one state south this weekend for three matches at Eastern Kentucky's Geri Polvino Invitational. The Penguins will play twice on Friday with a 10 a.m. contest against Radford and a 4 p.m. meeting with Morehead State. YSU will then play EKU on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. to wrap up its weekend at the Olympic Sports Training Center in Richmond, Ky.

Saturday's match against the host Colonels will be streamed live on ESPN+, and all three contests will have live stats linked on YSUsports.com.

Match 1 vs. Radford

Youngstown State University Logo

When: Friday, Sept. 6 | 10 a.m.
Where: Olympic Sports Training Center | Richmond, Ky.
Stats: StatBroadcast
Social: X | Instagram | Facebook

Match 2 vs. Morehead State

Youngstown State University Logo

When: Friday, Sept. 6 | 4 p.m.
Where: Olympic Sports Training Center | Richmond, Ky.
Stats: StatBroadcast
Social: X | Instagram | Facebook

Match 3 at EKU

Youngstown State University Logo

When: Saturday, Sept. 7 | 1:30 p.m.
Where: Olympic Sports Training Center | Richmond, Ky.
Watch: ESPN+
Stats: StatBroadcast
Social: X | Instagram | Facebook

Recapping Last Week

Youngstown State began its era under first-year head coach Riley Jarrett last weekend by posting a 1-2 record at a tournament hosted by UConn. The Penguins improved with each match, going from a 3-0 loss to Sacred Heart to a 3-2 loss to UConn to a 3-2 victory over an LIU squad that played in the NCAA Tournament in 2023.

Team Notes

YSU had 211 attempts on Sunday against LIU, which is the most by a Penguins team since 2012 and the second-most in the 25-point rally scoring format.
Defensively, the Penguins dug 96 attacks by LIU, which was the most in a match in nearly two years and the fourth-most in a five-set match in the current scoring format.
Youngstown State's 12 aces against LIU were the fourth-most in a five-set match since 2008.

Player Notes

Kiyah Franklin went over 200 career kills last week in her 25-kill week. The senior right-side hitter was back in action after missing the final 25 matches of the 2023 campaign, and she nearly matched her kills total from last season in the opening weekend of 2024.
Bianca Giglio registered new career highs of 10 kills and 40 attacks in YSU's victory over LIU. She came into the match with 25 kills in her career, which included two seasons at Marshall.
Abbie Householder was named to the all-tournament team at UConn after averaging 3.00 kills and 3.38 digs over YSU's three matches. Her best match came in the win over LIU when she posted a career-high 22 kills while adding 26 digs. She became just the third YSU player (Aleah Hughes and Paula Guershing were the others) to post a 20-20 since scoring was changed to the 25-point rally format after the 2007 season. Householder surpassed 500 career kills and 600 career digs a day earlier in the Penguins' match against UConn.
Gabriela Machin played in just five sets last weekend, but she took advantage of her opportunities. Machin was particularly effective in the win over LIU with 12 kills in four sets. She posted five of those kills in nine swings in the clinching fifth set to account for 5.5 of YSU's 15 points.
Dayan Malave was day-to-day with a lower-body injury heading into the weekend, but she played in all 13 sets in Connecticut. She averaged 1.62 kills per set, up from 1.21 last season, and hit .288. She added a team-best eight blocks.
Isabel Schaefbauer registered a career-high 54 assists while tying her career high with 24 digs in YSU's victory over the Sharks on Sunday. She also tied her previous career high for blocks with three in the opening match over Sacred Heart. Schaefbauer is YSU's primary setter in a 5-1 offense in 2024 after playing in a 6-2 in her first two seasons as a Penguin.

A Glimpse at the Guins

Changes on the fly: Youngstown State used several different lineup combinations to try and find the winning formula last week in Connecticut. Of the 14 players who made the trip, 11 played in at least five sets and 12 made appearances overall. Despite that, YSU had the same starting lineup in all three matches: Kiyah Franklin, Abbie Householder, Dayan Malave, Teagan Ng, Isabel Schaefbauer, Julia Sell and Nyia Setla.
Newcomers solid in debut weekend: Three new Penguins were part of the regular rotation last week as freshman Teagan Ng played in 11 sets, junior Bianca Giglio appeared in 12 sets, and fifth-year senior Nyia Setla played in all 13. Ng had nine kills in 19 attempts in the opener against Sacred Heart, and she finished the tournament with 22 kills. Giglio registered 10 digs versus UConn, the Marshall transfer posted a career-best 10 kills in the five-set win over LIU. Setla, a Division II All-American at West Liberty, averaged a team-high 3.31 digs per set and recorded 23 against UConn. Setla was also solid in serve receive with just two errors in 50 attempts. Freshman middle blocker Kelsey Cooper played in six sets, and she registered eight kills in 15 attempts while adding four blocks. She led the team with 0.67 blocks per set last week.
Road-heavy schedule to start: Youngstown State opened a season on the road for the first time since 2018. Starting in 2019, YSU hosted a multiple-team event on the opening weekend of each season except for the Spring 2021 campaign that was adjusted for the pandemic. This season, the Penguins are on the road until Sept. 20 as a major renovation to the Beeghly Center seating area is in progress.
Jarrett takes the reigns: Riley Jarrett is in her first season as YSU's head coach, and she is at the Division I level for the first time in her career. YSU's previous head coach, Aline Scott, resigned on Feb. 22 to pursue a career out of coaching, and Jarrett was hired on April 9. Jarrett had a week to practice with the Penguins in the spring, and she brought on assistant coaches Maddie Clayton and Grace Wilson in May and June, respectively. Jarrett is a Northeast Ohio native who played collegiately at Division III Mount Union in Ohio. She went on to lead Division II West Liberty in West Virginia to three straight 20-win seasons before coming to Youngstown.
Schaefbauer, Giglio make up leadership team: Fifth-year senior Isabel Schaefbauer and junior Bianca Giglio were voted to the Leadership Team by their teammates. Both student-athletes are transfers who began their careers at other Division I schools. Schaefbauer, who began her career at Winthrop, is entering her third season as a setter for the Penguins. She has played in all 232 sets since she arrived on campus. Giglio is a transfer from Marshall who is in her first season at Youngstown State.
Excelling in the classroom: Youngstown State juniors Abbie Householder and Julia Sell were both named Academic All-District by the College Sports Communicators in 2023. They joined former Penguins Josi Borum and Isidora Sisic, a duo that also earned Academic All-Horizon League accolades. As a team, YSU earned the AVCA Team Academic Award for the 11th straight season for maintaining a year-long GPA of at least 3.3 on a 4.0 scale. Youngstown State's GPA for the 2023-24 academic year was 3.54, and Householder, Sisic, Maria Insana, Gabriela Machin and Isabel Schaefbauer each achieved a 4.0 in both semesters.
Horizon League preseason poll: Youngstown State was slotted to finish 10th in the Under Armour #HLVB Preseason Coaches Poll. Wright State received nine of the 10 first-place votes for 99 points, and NKU was picked second with 85 points. Milwaukee (73), Green Bay (71), Cleveland State (63) and Oakland (53) were slotted for the next four spots to round out the top six, which is how many teams qualify for the Horizon League Volleyball Championship. Purdue Fort Wayne (38), IU Indianapolis (26) and RMU (26) were seventh and tied for eighth.

Scouting the Opponents

Radford

Radford is coming off a 1-2 last week at Temple's Cherry and White Challenge. The Highlanders played a pair of three-set matches with a loss to Temple and a win over Rider, and Radford fell in a close five-set match against Fairleigh Dickinson.
Fifth-year senior Sydney Mundkowsky is the reigning Big South Player of the Week after breaking the program record for kills with 30 in the five-setter against FDU. She totaled 49 kills and 26 digs while hitting .356 over the weekend. Mundkowsky, Sophie Paspal (35 kills) and Olivia Flanagan (25 kills) provided 109 of Radford's 148 kills last week.
Radford posted a 6-17 record last season, and it was picked to finish fifth in the Big South preseason poll. The Highlanders are under first-year head coach Chris Hertel.
Youngstown State is playing Radford for the second time in program history and for the first time since 2004. The Penguins fell to the Highlanders 3-2 in a tournament hosted by Holy Cross on Sept. 4, 2004.

Morehead State

Morehead State went winless at the Bluegrass Battle hosted by Kentucky last week, dropping four-setters to Western Kentucky, Northern Kentucky and the Wildcats.
Junior outside hitter M.E. Hargan and fifth-year senior Irene Wogenstahl are both on the Ohio Valley Conference preseason All-Conference team. Hargan led the Eagles with 391 kills in 2023, while Wogenstahl ranked second in the OVC with 126 total blocks.
The Eagles were picked third in the Ohio Valley Conference Preseason poll, and they were just four points out of being the preseason favorites. The Eagles went 18-13 last season and have won at least 20 matches 12 times in the last 20 seasons.
The Penguins are 2-12 all-time against the Eagles in a series dating back to 1983. YSU won the last meeting 3-0 on Aug. 25, 2017, at Morehead State's Eagle Challenge to snap an 11-game slide dating back to 1984 when both schools were members of the OVC.

Eastern Kentucky

Eastern Kentucky went 1-2 at the Boston College Invitational on the opening weekend of the season. The Colonels swept Iona for their victory, and they had a 3-0 loss to Texas Tech and a 3-1 loss to Boston College.
Five of six starters, and the libero, return from last season's EKU team that went 21-9 overall and 11-5 in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Colonels were picked to finish third in the conference preseason poll, which is where they finished in 2023.
Senior libero Josie Schmitendorf was chosen by league head coaches as the ASUN Conference Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, and she and senior outside hitter Sarah Mitchell were selected to the eight-member Preseason All-ASUN Team. Mitchell averaged a team-high 3.60 kills per set over the opening weekend.
Youngstown State is 1-10 all-time against EKU with the win coming in the most recent meeting in 2016. The Penguins topped the Colonels 3-1 on Sept. 9, 2016, in a tournament hosted by Akron. YSU's series with EKU dates back to 1983 when both schools were members of the Ohio Valley Conference.

Up Next

Youngstown State will spend next week in the Buffalo area for the Ellicott Hotels Western New York Invitational. The Penguins will play at Canisius on Sept. 12, and they'll play two matches at Niagara University the following two days. YSU will play Niagara on Sept. 13, and it'll play a neutral-site match against Bucknell on Sept. 14.