No. 15 Penn State (12-5, 4-3 Big Ten) failed to hold on to a 2-1 lead against UCLA (14-4, 5-2 Big Ten) late Friday night at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

Kennedy Martin, with 25 kills, and Whitney Lauenstein, with 19 kills, were offensively dominant and gave the Bruins problems all night.

After looking down and out, UCLA came back to win in five.

How It Happened

Lauenstein secured Penn State’s first point on the board after starting down 0-2, when she hit a powerful spike down the middle.

Kendall Northern tied it up at 3-3 after a powerful kill. After a lot of back and forth, the Nittany Lions gained their first lead at 6-5, from another kill by Northern.

Going into the match, neither team had lost a game after winning the first set, and a cagey start to the match gave the fans lots of high-energy rallies.

At the first media timeout in the first set, UCLA led Penn State 15-12. Maggie Li, on the Bruins, was proving to be formidable as she had 5 kills in the game already.

UCLA seemed like they were starting to pull away as they took a 20-14 lead near the end of the first set.

Martin cut the lead to three, as she got her eighth kill of the night thus far.

UCLA won the 1st set 25-20. They looked like the more comfortable team, and they committed very few errors. Their points were spread out across players, as four players had three or more kills in the set. UCLA had 22 digs in the set.

Penn State struck first in the second set as Lauenstein notched her fifth kill of the match.

Penn State got its largest lead of the night up 5-1 as they forced a net error from UCLA’s Brooke Harwood. Shortly after, Martin got her 10th consecutive double-digit kill game of the season.

Penn State started the second set dominant, taking a 12-4 lead before the first timeout.

The Nittany Lions were up 18-11 near the end of the second set. UCLA gave them a scare as it went on a 7-0 run, but the Nittany Lions responded with a 5-0 run of their own, led by Lauenstein.

Penn State won the second set 25-15. They kept the momentum that they built rolling into the beginning of the third set. At this point, the overall match was tied 1-1 on sets.

The contest remained competitive as it was tied 5-5 at the beginning of the third set.

Martin helped Penn State regain the lead 15-14 going into the media timeout. It was a riveting sequence between the two sides, but the Nittany Lions prevailed on the longest rally of the night so far.

Martin recorded a serve ace near the end of the set to give Penn State a 21-16 lead. Moments later, the Nittany Lions secured the second set 25-17.

The Nittany Lions kept things going as they started up 6-2 in the fourth set. UCLA needed to make changes quickly to stand a chance.

Martin slammed home her twentieth kill of the night to give Penn State a 13-8 lead in the fourth.

UCLA forced a timeout from Penn State as they went on a 4-0 run midway through the fourth, cutting the lead to 17-14.

Late in the set, tensions heightened with a 21-19 lead in Penn State’s favor. An error from Martin gave the Bruins a much-needed 22-22 tie.

UCLA challenged a Lauenstein spike that would’ve leveled the set at 23-23. The challenge was successful. UCLA led 24-22. Lauenstein came through on defense and tied it back up at 24.

The Bruins captured the fourth set thanks to Li, who tipped one over the net to win 26-24.

The match entered its fifth and final set, where Penn State bounced back as they started out 8-5. UCLA regained the lead halfway through the fifth off of a Li kill.

After the kill, the Bruins had all the momentum at this point. They held strong and pulled out of the fifth set with a 15-12 victory, winning the match 3-2.

Key Takeaways

• Penn State was far more accurate than UCLA on its hits as it led them in hit percentage across the match (.245 to .179)

• The Nittany Lions had 11 serve errors, while the Bruins only had four. The Nittany Lions won in the box score in nearly every other category.

• The Nittany Lions lost their first after a three-game Big Ten winning streak; they found rhythm after the first set but couldn’t finish down the stretch.

What’s Next

The Nittany Lions stay in “The City of Angels” as they take on USC at 7 p.m. EST on Saturday, October 17, at the Galen Center.