UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 14 Penn State men’s volleyball came up just short in a thrilling fourth set as it dropped its non-conference home match to No. 14 Hawai’i 3-1 (25-27, 25-10, 25-15, 38-36) on Saturday night at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions are now 4-4 overall, while Rainbow Warriors moved to 9-1.
Matthew Luoma finished with a team-high 17 kills for Penn State, while Sean Harvey joined him in double-digits with 11 kills. Harvey just missed a double-double as he added nine digs and a pair of blocks.
Ryan Merk tallied six digs in the match. The redshirt senior made his 100th-consecutive start at libero, which spans every match of his collegiate career.
Kainoa Wade hit .450 with 21 kills, four blocks, and three aces in the win for Hawai’i. Louis Sakanoko also had a huge match, hitting .515 with 19 kills, five blocks, and one ace.
Set 1
The teams battled close for the entire set before Owen Rose made the difference at the service line to help Penn State get the 28-26 win. Hawai’i had two chances at set point, the first of which was stopped with a kill by Luoma to knot the score at 24-all and the second of which was thwarted by a block from Harvey and Rose. Following the block, Rose went to the line and came through with back-to-back aces to clinch the set win for the Nittany Lions. The redshirt senior middle blocker now has a team-best 12 aces on the season.
Set 2
Hawai’i responded in a big way with a 25-10 win in set two. The Rainbow Warriors hit .833 as a team, led by Wade with five kills on five attacks. Sakanoko was also perfect on his three swings.
Set 3
The Rainbow Warriors carried the momentum in to set three as they rolled to a 25-15 win. This time they hit .667, including five kills on .714 hitting by Sakanoko and five kills on .571 hitting by Adrien Roure.
Set 4
There was plenty of extra volleyball in set four as Hawai’i came out on top 38-36. The teams combined for 42 kills with 21 each. Luoma went off for 10 kills on .400 hitting for Penn State, while Tread Rosenthal racked up 17 assists for Hawai’i. The Nittany Lions couldn’t come through on their five chances at set point, while the Rainbow Warriors needed eight tries before getting the match-clinching point. The match ended with back-to-back challenges. Penn State was looking for a block touch call on an attack error but lost the challenge to make the score 37-36 Hawai’i. The Rainbow Warriors then had a serve called out but won the challenge to end the match with an ace by Roure.
Career Highs
Kyle Fagan – digs (1)
Sean Harvey – assists (5)
Up Next
Penn State hosts Saint Francis on Friday at 7 p.m.