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Sept. 3, 2016
BOULDER, Colo. - Redshirt freshman Tori Gorrell turned in a career-high 14 kills and five blocks, but it was not enough as No. 13 Penn State dropped a five-set (25-22,20-25,19-25,25-20, 3-15) decision at Colorado Saturday evening in the first match of the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge at the Coors Events Center.
Junior Simone Lee led the squad with 19 kills. Junior Ali Frantti also turned in double-digit kills with 11 of her own. Sophomore Bryanna Weiskircher and Detering led the team in assists with 35 and 15, respectively.
Junior Haleigh Washington had eight kills and led the team with nine total blocks, including three solo stuffs.
After forcing a decisive fifth set with a come from behind 25-20 victory in the fourth Penn State had the momentum. However, it was Colorado who came out fired up and rattled off six consecutive points for the early 6-0 margin.
Lee stopped the run as she split the block with a kill, but the Buffaloes came right back with a kill and a service ace for the 8-1 lead. Lee added another kill, but Penn State could not silence the Colorado attack as they cruised to the 15-3 set victory and the 3-2 match win.
A back-and-forth opening set saw the teams trade momentum as early on Lee connected on an ace to tie things at 3-3 and a few points later Washington skied for a solo block during a 4-point Lion spurt for the 8-7 edge.
Midway through the set Gorrell sparked the Nittany Lions with a huge kill to tie the score at 13-13. Gorrell had four kills in the opening set to pace the team while hitting at an 80 percent clip.
The teams continued to trade points with neither holding more than a two-point advantage at any time until PSU used a 4-0 spurt to close the set after an attacking error off a serve from freshman Kendall White for the 25-22 set victory. PSU hit .414 in the opening set.
The Buffaloes came out in the second set fired up jumping to an early 3-0 lead before Penn State came right back with three straight points of their own with kills by Lee, Gorrell and Washington, in that order. However, a pair of attacking errors by the visitors and some big kills for Colorado pushed the host lead to 10-4, the biggest of the game for either team.
The Lions came clawing back, however, following a timeout and were able to rattle off seven of the next nine points to cut the deficit to 12-11 after the soft touch of junior Heidi Thelen resulted in a kill and prompted a Buffalo timeout.
Colorado fought back again out of the break with a pair of quick points and wouldn't let Penn State get close enough to grab the momentum as a pair of late service errors and a closing block by Joslyn Hayes gave the Buffaloes the 25-20 second set win.
Behind Frantti and Washington the Nittany Lions came out of the ten-minute break and started the third set on fire jumping out to a 5-2 lead after a huge solo-block by Washington and a big swing by Frantti.
The Buffaloes regrouped and came surging back scoring 13 of the next 20 points to grab the 15-12 lead at the media timeout. CU continued to roll scoring two more quick ones out of the break on a pair of attack errors to grab their largest lead of the set 17-12.
Junior Lainy Pierce sparked a comeback off the bench as she served up a pair of points while Lee and Gorrell both hit the double-digit kill mark as PSU scored six-of-eight points prompting a timeout trailing just 19-18.
However, Colorado used the energy of the crowd and rattled off six of the final seven points for the 25-19 set victory.
Lee opened the fourth set with a big swing, but Colorado came back with five unanswered points for the 5-1 lead taking advantage of three attacking errors by Penn State. The Lions fought back taking advantage of Colorado errors and used back-to-back kills by Frantti for the 9-8 edge. A kill by Washington followed by a block-assist by Frantti and Washington pushed the lead to 11-8, their largest lead since the opening set victory.
The Nittany Lions continued to grow that lead grabbing their largest margin of the contest, 20-14, after back-to-back kills by Washington and Frantti. PSU continued to roll in the fourth set as Washington soared for back-to-back blocks for the 22-15 edge late in the frame.
Despite a late run by Colorado with three straight points it was Gorrell with the final kill in the fourth set to set up the decisive fifth.
Penn State led in kills, 60-55, but had 33 attacking errors including 12 service errors and Colorado held the .220 to .154 advantage in hitting percentage for the contest.
The Nittany Lions return to action tomorrow afternoon as they battle No. 9 Stanford at 5 p.m. ET. The Cardinal held on to narrowly defeat No. 14 Illinois, in five sets, during their opening day match earlier Saturday afternoon.