ROMEOVILLE, Illinois – The Penn State men's volleyball team nearly completed two comebacks in sets one and two, but ultimately fell in straight sets 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-12) to tenth-ranked Lewis Friday evening on the road.
Penn State dropped to 4-3 overall on the season while the Flyers improved to 7-3.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Set
- Lewis took advantage of a couple of kills and a few early errors by the Nittany Lions to lead 8-3.
- The Flyers extended their lead to as much as eight at 19-11.
- Jason Donorovich swung momentum back on the Nittany Lions' side with three-straight kills. Penn State scored nine of the next 11 points to trail by just two at 21-19.
- Lewis regained its footing and closed the set, with the final point coming on a Nittany Lion service error.
- Set Score: Lewis 25, Penn State 22
- Match: Lewis leads 1-0
Second Set
- The Flyers once again stormed out of the gates and forced a Nittany Lion timeout with a 10-4 lead and added to that lead with a 14-8 advantage.
- Penn State stormed back with another mid-set rally to shrink Lewis' lead to trail 15-13.
- Henrik Falck Lauten scored the Nittany Lions' next three points off two kills and an ace to tie the game at 16.
- Lewis took the next two points to leads 18-16, but PSU wouldn't go down without a fight, scoring the next three points capped by two kills by Matthew McLaren to take its first lead of the night 19-18.
- After a Nittany Lions timeout when leading 22-21, Lewis scored three in a row to set up the Flyer's first set point. Penn State fended it off on Cal Fisher's kill, but Lewis clinched the second set in comeback fashion on its next set point try.
- Set Score: Lewis 25, Penn State 23
- Match: Lewis leads 2-0
Third Set
- Both teams traded points early in the set as Lewis held a slight lead at 7-6
- The tenth-ranked Flyers proceeded to score seven of the next eight points, including a five-point streak, before Penn State finally stopped the bleeding on Falck Lauten's kill at 14-8.
- Errors marred the Nittany Lions in the third set and helped Lewis continue to build its lead to as high as 13, the margin of the final score of the set.
- Set Score: Lewis 25, Penn State 12
- Match: Lewis wins 3-0
GAME NOTES
- Penn State fell victim to its own errors in the match. The Nittany Lions had 18 attack errors compared to Lewis' seven, 18 to 12 in service errors, four to one in blocking errors, and four to two in reception errors.
- The Nittany Lions hit .189 (36-18-95) to the Flyers .415 (34-7-65).
- Falck Lauten led the Nittany Lions outright for the first time in his career with 11 kills while hitting .240 (11-5-25). He also had an ace, three digs, and a block.
- Donorovich hit .463 (7-1-13). He has now hit better than .400 in six of seven matches in 2019.
- McLaren was second on the team with 10 kills in two sets of work.
- Cole Bogner led the Nittany Lions with 23 assists and chipped in three digs and a block while fellow freshman Cal Fisher led the team with five digs.
- Lewis' Julian Moses and Ryan Coenen led the Flyers with identical attacking statistics of 10 kills and a .500 hitting percentage. (10-1-18).
NEXT UP
- The Nittany Lions face another ranked opponent tomorrow, February 2, with a road match against fifth-ranked Loyola Chicago set to begin at 3 p.m. CT / 4 p.m. ET.