Richmond, Ky. — The Youngstown State volleyball team split a pair of matches on the opening day of Eastern Kentucky's Geri Polvino Invitational on Friday. The Penguins earned a four-set victory over Radford in the morning, and they dropped a three-set decision to Morehead State in the afternoon.
Junior outside hitter Abbie Householder collected a pair of double-doubles on Friday, including when she posted a career-high 24 kills in the win over the Highlanders. She added 17 digs in the morning victory, and she posted 13 kills and 12 digs against Morehead State.
Youngstown State is now 2-3 this season, and it will look to even its season record when it takes on EKU on Saturday. First serve against the Colonels is set for 1:30 p.m., and the match will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Match 1 vs. Radford
In the opening match of EKU's tournament, the Penguins won the first two sets and rallied in the fourth to beat Radford 3-1 at the Olympic Sports Training Center. The set scores were 25-19, 25-21, 26-28, 25-23.
In addition to Householder's 24-kill, 17-dig performance, Isabel Schaefbauer posted a double-double with 49 assists and 12 digs from the setter position. Gabriela Machin and Kelsey Cooper both reached double digits in kills with 13 and 11, respectively, and Nyia Setla registered a team-high 20 digs.
Householder and Teagan Ng both had five aces, and Youngstown State had a 10-5 edge in aces.
Ng had three aces and a kill during a 7-0 run for the Penguins in the opening set that gave them a 23-16 lead. YSU went on to win 25-19, and the Penguins' final deficit in the second set was 11-10.
Youngstown State then held a 21-16 lead in the third set and had three match points, but Radford extended the match by winning 28-26. The Highlanders took an early 11-4 advantage in the fourth as they looked to force a fifth set, but Youngstown State went on a 13-3 burst to take a 17-14 lead following back-to-back aces by Householder. The Penguins trailed 23-22 later in the match, but Radford had back-to-back attack errors to give YSU another match point. Householder capitalized on the opportunity with her 24th kill of the match.
Match 2 vs. Morehead State
In the afternoon, Morehead State had a 46-33 advantage in kills and beat the Penguins 25-19, 25-22, 25-20.
Householder accounted for 13 of YSU's 33 kills in the match, and Bianca Giglio was second on the squad with six kills. Setla and Schaefbauer both had 17 digs.
With YSU trailing just 18-17, Morehead State closed out the first set on a 7-2 run to win 25-17. There were 14 ties and seven lead changes in the second set, and YSU's final lead was 17-16 after a Giglio ace. The final tie came at 19, and Morehead State scored four of the next five points to gain a late edge that led to a 25-22 win. The Eagles scored eight straight points early in the third and led for most of the set.
