No. 7 Penn State women’s volleyball (4-0) come from behind to defeat No. 9 Kentucky (3-2) on Friday night in a five-set thriller. This was their first game of two in the Kentucky Invitational in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Nittany Lions erased a two-set deficit to pull an incredible comeback in front of a hostile environment in Kentucky. Penn State’s hitting percentage of .264 compared to Kentucky’s .189 played a huge factor in their comeback victory.

How It Happened

Penn State got off to a slow start as Kentucky won the first three points of the set. The Nittany Lions responded back with a kill by Jess Mruzik to trim the deficit to two. This led to the Lions winning two straight points due to a service ace by Gillian Grimes and a kill by Mruzik to tie the set at three.

After both teams exchanged kills, the Wildcats won two straight points to take the lead at 6-4. Both teams exchanged scores for eight straight points before a kill by Kentucky’s Brooklyn DeLeye increased the Wildcats’ lead to three. After this kill, Kentucky increased their five with back-to-back service aces by Erin Lamb which forced the Nittany Lions to take their first timeout of the game.

After the timeout, the Nittany Lions responded with back-to-back kills by Mruzik to decrease their deficit to three, but a service error by Grimes ended this momentum. After Kentucky’s Molly Tuozzo committed a service error, the Wildcats went on a 3-0 run to increase their lead to six. The Nittany Lions showed their resilience by winning the next three points on attack errors by Kentucky to trim their deficit back to three. This forced the Wildcats to take a timeout.

Out the timeout, Mruzik committed a service error to increase the lead to four for the Wildcats. Penn State responded with back-to-back kills by Maggie Mendelson and Camryn Hannah to trim their deficit to two. Both teams traded blows for the next six points as Kentucky’s lead stayed intact. Its lead increased to three as DeLeye recorded another kill for the Wildcats.

The Wildcats built momentum off this kill as they went on to win the next two points to get their first set opportunity. This forced the Nittany Lions to take another timeout to end Kentucky’s momentum. This attempt was unsuccessful as the Wildcats capitalized on its first set opportunity when Mzurik committed an attack error to give Kentucky the set victory 25-19.

The second set began with a kill by Kentucky’s Jordyn Dailey. However, after Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley challenged the call, the call was overturned as it was determined that there was no touch from the Nittany Lions as the ball went out of bounds. This gave the Nittany Lions the first point of the set. The Wildcats tied the set at one with a kill by Lamb. After both teams exchanged points, Kentucky took the lead in the set due to a kill by Megan Wilson. The Wildcats went on to win the next two points with back-to-back kills to increase their lead to three.

After Kentucky took a three-point lead, Penn State responded back by going on a 4-0 run with kills by Mzurik and Hannah along with two attack errors by Kentucky to give the Nittany Lions the lead in the set once again at 6-5. This run ended when Mruzik committed a service error which tied the set at six. Penn State did not let this deter it and went on to win the next two points with a kill by Mendelson and an ace by Quinn Menger to take the lead at 8-6.

Both teams exchanged the next two points, but Kentucky tied the set once again with back-to-back kills. Both teams went blow-for-blow for the next six points and the deadlock was broken when Wilson recorded a kill for the Wildcats to take a 13-12 lead. Their lead increased to two when Mzurik committed an attack, and that lead stayed intact for the next two points which led to a media timeout.

Out of the media timeout, both teams exchanged the next two points. After DeLeye’s service error trimmed Penn State’s deficit to one, the Nittany Lions went on to take the lead in the set once again at 17-16 by winning the next two points. This lead was short-lived as the Wildcats responded by winning the next two points to take back the lead. Both teams exchanged scores for the next four points as Kentucky’s one-point lead stayed intact which forced the Nittany Lions to take a timeout.

Out of the timeout, Penn State tied the set at 20 due to a service error by Lamb. After both teams exchanged points, the Wildcats took the lead at 22-21 and won the next two points to get their first set opportunity. The Nittany Lions showed their resilience by winning the next two points with a kill by Hannah and an attack error by Brooke Bultema to decrease their deficit to one and force the Wildcats to take a timeout to end Penn State’s momentum. The timeout was successful as Menger committed a critical service error on Kentucky’s third set opportunity to give Kentucky the set at 25-23 and a two-set lead.

The third set went underway with back-to-back kills by Kentucky and the Wildcats increased their lead to three on attack error by Hannah. The Nittany Lions finally got on the board in the set with a kill by Izzy Starck. After a kill by DeLeye increased Kentucky’s lead to three, Penn State recorded back-to-back by Hannah to trim the deficit to one before her service error gave Kentucky a 5-3 lead. Both teams traded blows for the next 10 points as Kentucky’s lead stayed intact. Its lead decreased to one as Kennedy Washington recorded a kill for the Nittany Lions. This gave momentum to Penn State as they went on to win the next two points to take their first lead of the set at 11-10.

This lead was short-lived as Kentucky responded by winning five straight points to take a four-point lead in the set. This led to the first media timeout of the set. Out of the timeout, the Nittany Lions ended Kentucky’s run with a service error by Eleanor Beavin and a recorded kill by Mruzik which trimmed Kentucky’s lead to two. After DeLeye increased Kentucky’s lead to three, the Nittany Lions showed resilience by going on a 4-0 run to take the lead in the set at 18-17. This run was highlighted with kills by Mendelson and Mruzik and a service ace by Ava Falduto, which forced the Wildcats to take a timeout.

Out of the timeout, the Nittany Lions’ run extended to five with a recorded kill by Mruzik to take a two-point lead in the set. However, the Wildcats ended this run with a kill by Lamb and went on to win the next point to tie the set at 19. Penn State responded with back-to-back kills to regain the lead at 21-19. Both teams exchanged the next two points before a kill by Hannah got Penn State within two points of winning the third set and led to a Kentucky timeout.

After the timeout, Kentucky decreased their deficit to two on an attack error by Starck, which led to a Penn State timeout right after. Out of the timeout, the Wildcats’ deficit was trimmed to one on a service ace by Haley Melby before a kill by Penn State’s Taylor Trammell gave the Nittany Lions their first set point opportunity. The Wildcats showed their resilience by winning the next two points to tie the set at 24. However, the Nittany Lions refused to let the Wildcats seize their momentum and forced their third set point opportunity as Hannah recorded another kill. After two failed opportunities, the Nittany Lions finally capitalized on their third set point opportunity on a kill by Mruzik to take this match into a fourth set.

After the Wildcats won the first point of the fourth set, the Nittany Lions won the next two points on another kill by Hannah and attack error by DeLeye to take a 2-1 lead. Both teams exchanged kills before an attack error by Hannah tied the set at three. This error gave momentum to the Wildcats as they went on to win three straight points to take a 6-3 lead. Both teams exchanged scores for the next four points before a kill by Anjelina Starck decreased Penn State’s deficit to two. After the recorded kill, the Nittany Lions showed its resilience by going on a 6-0 run to take a three-point lead, which was highlighted with two service aces by Falduto. This forced the Wildcats to take a timeout with the hope of ending Penn State’s momentum.

Out of the timeout, the Wildcats ended the Nittany Lions’ run when DeLeye recorded another kill to trim Penn State’s lead to two. After both teams exchanged blows, the Nittany Lions went on yet another run as they won the next four points to increase their lead to six. This led to the Wildcats to take yet another timeout.

After the timeout, the Wildcats ended this run on a service error by Grimes to decrease their deficit. However, the Nittany Lions kept riding their momentum with back-to-back kills to increase their lead to seven. The Wildcats responded by winning the next four points to trim the deficit to three. The Nittany Lions ended this run with a recorded kill by Hannah, but the Wildcats won the next two points to decrease Penn State’s lead to two and forced the Nittany Lions to take a timeout attempting to end Kentucky’s momentum.

This attempt was unsuccessful as the Wildcats got within one point of tying the set off a recorded kill by Lamb. After both teams exchanged kills, the Nittany Lions increased their lead to three with a kill by Mruzik and an attack error by DeLeye. Both teams exchanged kills right after and the Wildcats went on to win the next two points to trim the deficit to one. However, Penn State did not let this deter it and responded with back-to-back kills by Hannah and Trammell to tie the match at two sets each.

The fifth set got underway, and the Nittany Lions kept riding their momentum from winning the last two sets by winning the first three points of the set. This was highlighted by kills from Starck and Hannah. The Wildcats got on the board right after with a kill by DeLeye. Both teams went blow-for-blow for the next six points before an attack error by Bultema increased Penn State’s lead to four. After the error, Trammell recorded another kill for the Nittany Lions to increase the lead to five which led to a media timeout.

Out of the timeout, the Nittany Lions seized their momentum to increase their lead to six. However, Kentucky refused to give up and responded by winning the next three points to trim their deficit to three. This led to Penn State taking a timeout to end the Wildcats’ momentum. This attempt was successful as the Nittany Lions ended Kentucky’s 3-0 run with another kill by Trammell to increase their lead to four. Both teams exchanged the next two points, but the Nittany Lions increased their lead to five on an attack error by Wilson. This forced Kentucky to take another timeout.

After the timeout, the Wildcats committed another attack error as the Nittany Lions got within two points of winning the match. The Wildcats trimmed their deficit to five, but the Nittany Lions refused to give momentum back to the Wildcats. Mruzik recorded a kill for the Nittany Lions to give them their first match point. On their opportunity, the Nittany Lions capitalized on Hannah’s kill as they finished off the set 15-8, to pull off the improbable comeback.

Takeaways

• What a comeback. After being down two sets, it looked like it was over for the Nittany Lions, but they showed a tremendous amount of resilience to pull off the comeback in front of Kentucky’s hostile environment.
• Digs played a huge factor in determining the outcome of this match. The Nittany Lions recorded 69 digs compared to Kentucky’s 55.
• The threesome of Hannah, Mruzik, and Trammell was the huge catalyst in Penn State’s comeback as the three combined to record 49 kills from the team’s 62 kills.

What’s Next?

Penn State will try to build off this momentum when they play their second game of the Kentucky Invitational against Ball State at 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 7.