The Ohio State women’s volleyball team won the opening set on the road Thursday night, Oct. 29, but No. 13 Penn State took the next three to beat the Buckeyes in four sets in Happy Valley, according to Ohio State Athletics’ official match recap. The set scores were 25-22, 19-25, 11-25 and 16-25.
Ohio State (10-11, 3-8 Big Ten) started fast. Trailing 12-7 in the first set, the Buckeyes ran off four straight points behind two kills each from Kalli Jioshvili-Ravva and Hannah Jones, took their first lead at 14-13, and closed the set 25-22 on a Jones kill and a Penn State attack error, Ohio State Athletics reported.
Penn State (16-5, 8-3 Big Ten) answered in the second set. The teams were tied four times early before the Nittany Lions edged ahead, and although Naomy Govou and a Penn State error pulled Ohio State within 17-15, Penn State finished the set 25-19, according to the recap.
The third set was all Penn State. The Nittany Lions opened it with a 7-0 run, led 15-7 at the media timeout and 18-8 soon after, and won it 25-11 despite late kills from Mia Tuman and Jojo Miller, Ohio State Athletics reported.
Ohio State kept the fourth set closer, staying within six points for long stretches behind kills from Govou, Jones and Jioshvili-Ravva and a solo block from Miller, but Penn State closed out the match 25-16, according to the recap.
Govou and Jioshvili-Ravva led the Buckeyes with 12 kills each — the 15th double-digit match of the season for Govou and the 14th for Jioshvili-Ravva. Govou also led the team with 11 digs for a double-double, Jones added 11 kills in her 17th double-digit match, Tuman handed out a team-high 36 assists, and Alia Schoonover and Aneta Valentová led the team with three blocks each, Ohio State Athletics reported.
The Buckeyes stay on the road for their next match, playing at Illinois on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m. ET, with the match airing on Big Ten Network, according to Ohio State Athletics.
Photo: Smuckers, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons