YOUNGSTOWN, OH \u2013 Youngstown State volleyball took care of business on its home floor Friday afternoon, using a balanced offensive attack and a strong defensive performance to knock off Oakland in four sets, 3-1, inside Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center.<\/p>\n
The Penguins claimed the Horizon League victory by set scores of 25-14, 25-22, 20-25, and 25-23, improving to 12-12 overall and 8-5 in conference play. Oakland dropped to 11-14 overall and 6-7 in the league.<\/p>\n
Youngstown State featured three players with double-digit kills as Kylie Surratt, Layne Graffice, and Abbie Householder each finished with 10. Ava Stratton added eight kills, while Wrigley Takats controlled the net with a match-high five blocks. Journey Nicola anchored the back row with 17 digs.<\/p>\n
The Penguins established control early, racing out to a 6-1 advantage in the opening set and never allowing the Golden Grizzlies to find their rhythm. Oakland trimmed the deficit to 8-5, but YSU responded with a 4-1 run, capped by a Stratton kill, to extend the lead to 12-6.<\/p>\n
A service ace from Takats pushed the Penguins ahead 20-10 before Householder delivered an ace to finish off the dominant 25-14 opening-set victory. Youngstown State limited Oakland to a negative .026 hitting percentage in the frame.<\/p>\n
YSU carried that momentum into the second set, building an 8-3 lead before stretching the advantage to 19-10. The Penguins were particularly sharp offensively, recording 17 kills against just four errors for an impressive .406 hitting percentage in the set.<\/p>\n
Oakland refused to go quietly, however, rallying to within 23-21 behind a service ace from Delaney Stern. Surratt answered the challenge with two crucial kills, allowing Youngstown State to escape with a 25-22 victory and take a commanding two-set advantage.<\/p>\n
The Golden Grizzlies responded in the third, overcoming a 16-11 deficit to even the score at 19. Oakland then seized control down the stretch, winning six of the final seven points to claim the set 25-20 and extend the match.<\/p>\n
With an opportunity to close things out, Youngstown State found itself in a battle throughout the fourth set.<\/p>\n
Oakland grabbed a 17-14 advantage before the Penguins rallied to tie the score at 17. With the teams deadlocked again at 18, YSU delivered three consecutive points to move ahead 21-18.<\/p>\n
Householder provided a critical kill down the line to put Youngstown State on the doorstep of victory at 24-20, but Oakland fought off three consecutive match points to make things interesting.<\/p>\n
The Penguins finally secured the victory when Oakland\u2019s Molly Reck sent an attack long, sealing the 25-23 fourth-set win and the conference triumph.<\/p>\n
Youngstown State finished the afternoon hitting .206 compared to Oakland\u2019s .145. The Penguins also held a 14-9 advantage in total blocks and a 6-3 edge in service aces, overcoming Oakland\u2019s 53-49 advantage in kills.<\/p>\n
Graffice added three service aces to her 10-kill performance, while Householder and Surratt each contributed to the Penguins\u2019 balanced attack.<\/p>\n
The victory gave Youngstown State another important result in the Horizon League standings as the regular season approached its final stretch.<\/p>\n
The two teams were scheduled for a quick turnaround, with Youngstown State traveling to Rochester, Michigan, for a Saturday rematch against Oakland at 4 p.m. inside the OU Credit Union O\u2019Rena. That contest marked the Penguins\u2019 final scheduled road match of the regular season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YOUNGSTOWN, OH \u2013 Youngstown State volleyball took care of business on its home floor Friday afternoon, using a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[199930,199931,41446,39842,199932,199933,199934,143,145,144,6266,199935,5482,199936,199937],"class_list":["post-523374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-abbie-householder","tag-ava-stratton","tag-college-volleyball","tag-horizon-league","tag-journey-nicola","tag-kylie-surratt","tag-layne-graffice","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-penguins","tag-wrigley-takats","tag-youngstown-state","tag-ysn","tag-ysu-volleyball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}