CHICAGO, Illinois – The Penn State men's volleyball team battled point-for-point with the seventh-ranked Loyola Chicago Ramblers but came up short in the end with a 3-1 defeat (25-21, 16-25, 29-31, 25-27) in nonconference action Saturday evening in at LUC's Gentile Arena.
The Nittany Lions fall back to .500 at 4-4 overall on the season. The Ramblers improved to 7-3.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Set
- After trading points early in the set, the Nittany Lions built the first multi-point lead of the match at 8-6 on three-straight points which included a Matthew McLaren kill.
- Another three-point burst gave PSU a 17-13 lead and force Loyola Chicago to call timeout. Jason Donorovich had a kill and an ace in the run.
- Another service ace by Cole Bogner gave the Nittany Lions its largest lead of the set at 19-14.
- The Ramblers never pulled within less than three for the rest of the set as Penn State took the frame.
- Penn State out hit LUC .310 to .194 and had just two attack errors in the set.
- Set Score: Penn State 25, Loyola Chicago 21
- Match Score: Penn State 1, Loyola Chicago 0
Second Set
- Loyola strung together the first run of the second set with three in a row to lead 7-3.
- Another four-point streak by the Ramblers put them up 14-7 before Falck Lauten stopped the run with a kill.
- Just after Falck Lauten's kill, however, LUC scored the next four points to lead 18-8.
- A pair of Brett Wildman kills helped pull the Nittany Lions within six at 22-14, but it proved to be too little too late as the Ramblers tied the match.
- Set Score: Loyola Chicago 25, Penn State 16
- Match Score: Tied 1-1
Third Set
- The Nittany Lions took three-straight points capped by a Donorovich kill to lead 12-10.
- Penn State led by as much as four at 15-11, but the Ramblers stormed back with eight of the next 10 points to lead 19-17.
- PSU immediately snatched the lead back at 21-20 thanks to kills from Donorovich and Falck Lauten.
- Penn State ended up having its first set point at 24-23, but Loyola hung on to force extra points.
- The Nittany Lions had four total set points but couldn't find the winning strike. LUC's Colin Mahan had a service ace to swing the rally in the Ramblers' favor.
- PSU held off two set points for Loyola before the Ramblers completed its late comeback at 31-29.
- Set Score: Loyola Chicago 31, Penn State 29
- Match Score: Loyola Chicago leads 2-1
Fourth Set
- Both squads managed four-point runs early in the fourth and the scored remained tied, 10-10.
- After Loyola led 12-10, neither team managed to score more than two points in a row for the remainder of the tightly contested set.
- Nathan Smith entered off the bench to get Penn State a big service ace to lead 22-21.
- After a successful challenge on net violation on Loyola, Penn State led 23-22.
- Loyola scored two-straight to set up their first match point, but the Nittany Lions fended it off on Falck Lauten's 11th kill of the match.
- Brett Wildman also stalled another Loyola match point with a kill, but the Ramblers successfully converted match point on their third try to take the set and the match.
- Set Score: Loyola Chicago 27, Penn State 25
- Match Score: Loyola Chicago wins 3-1
GAME NOTES
- After hitting .000 in the first set, Jason Donorovich finished the afternoon tied for the PSU team high with 11 kills while hitting .400 for the match (11-3-20). He also had a team-high six block assists to go with four digs.
- Henrik Falck Lauten recorded the Nittany Lions' first double-double of the 2019 season with 11 kills and 10 digs. He also chipped in four block assists defensively and set a career high with 34 attacks.
- Brett Wildman also set career highs with nine kills and 24 attacks, surpassing his previous highs of seven kills and 19 attacks on 1/21 at Saint Francis.
- Cole Bogner also set a new defensive career high with eight digs while tying a previous high mark with four block assists in addition to his team-best 36 assists.
- Loyola Chicago's Colin Mahan led all players with 24 kills on .475 hitting (24-5-40). Rambler teammate Garret Zolg finished the match with 57 assists.
NEXT UP
- The Nittany Lions head even further west for its first of two California trips this season as they take on defending national champion and top-ranked Long Beach State along with #9 UC Santa Barbara in Long Beach Feb. 8-9.