UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 4 Penn State women's volleyball team fell, 3-2, in a heartbreaker to No. 17 Purdue, by the set scores of 11-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-22, 20-19, with the Boilermakers taking the last three sets to steal the match.
Graduate student Taylor Leath led the way for the Nittany Lions with her fourth double-double of the season and a new Penn State high of 21 kills, while hitting .333. She added 12 digs, three blocks and two assists on the evening.
Redshirt senior Nia Reed added 18 kills, three digs, two blocks, and two assists, while freshman Kaitlyn Hord added 10 kills, hitting .421, and added three block.
Freshman middle blocker Serena Gray put down seven kills and tallied a team-high five blocks.
Redshirt senior Bryanna Weiskircher recorded her seventh double-double of the year with 52 assists and 10 digs. She also added three kills and two blocks.
Defensively, junior libero Kendall White led all players with 17 digs.
Penn State jumped out to an early 2-0 set lead. In the first set, Penn State hit .455, led by a 4-0-4 performance from Serena Gray in the middle. Graduate student Taylor Leath added five digs in the opener with three kills. The Nittany Lions gained the 1-0 advantage with a 25-11 win.
In the second set, Penn State put down 16 kills led by Leath, who added five more to her stat line. The Nittany Lions also added three team blocks in the second set to take the stanza, 25-22.
In the third set, Penn State led 20-13, but a string of five serves from Purdue's Jena Otec brought it to a one point gap, and from there, the Boilermakers were able to take the third set, 25-23.
Purdue took the fourth set by hitting .302 with 21 kills. Penn State saw Nia Reed put down four kills with zero errors, but it wasn't enough to overcome the Boilermakers, who took the set, 25-23.
In the fifth and final set, the two teams went neck and neck, with the visitors ultimately taking the set and match with a 20-18 win. Leath put down an impressive six kills in the final set, and added four digs. However, Penn State hit .182 to Purdue's .321.
The Nittany Lions finished the match with a higher hitting percentage at .257 to Purdue's .233, with 69 kills to their 68. Penn State also dished out five aces to Purdue's two.
Penn State hits the road for the first of a four-match road stretch as they head to Nebraska for an 8 p.m. BTN showdown with the Huskers in Lincoln, Neb., on Friday, November 2.