No. 17 USC Women's Volleyball Drops Five-Setter To No. 15 Penn State

Friday, September 26

University Park, Pa.

5:00 p.m. PT / 8:00 p.m. ET

USC

9-2,0-1Big Ten

Penn State

7-4,1-0Big Ten

Southern California

Penn St.

No. 17 USC Women's Volleyball Drops Five-Setter To No. 15 Penn State

September 26, 2025 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Highlights

Two Trojans produced double-doubles in a narrow loss to the Nittany Lions

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 17 USC women's volleyball team (9-2, 0-1 Big Ten) fell to No. 15 Penn State (7-4, 1-0) in five sets (25-13, 25-22, 19-25, 19-25, 15-13) in its conference opener at Rec Hall on Friday, Sept. 26.

KEY PLAYERS

Fr. S Reese Messer produced her fifth double-double with 37 assists and a career-high 16 digs. She also added four kills on .667 hitting to go with two blocks and a service ace.
RS So. OH London Wijay earned her third double-double (12th career) with 10 kills and 10 digs with three blocks and an ace to total 12.5 points.
RS Jr. OH Adonia Faumuina had a team-high 11 kills (3e, 31att) on .258 hitting with six blocks and a dig.
RS So. MB Leah Ford notched a match-high eight blocks to go with five kills (1e, 8att, .500).
Fr. LIB Taylor Deckert had 13 digs for her eighth match in double-digit digs.
Fr. OPP Abigail Mullen led all USC scorers with 14.5 points collected on nine kills, four service aces, and three blocks. She also had eight digs.
For the Nittany Lions, Kennedy Martin led with 29 kills and 13 digs to go with five blocks and two aces for 34.5 points. Every Penn State player that had a dig reached double digits led by 16 from Gillian Grimes. Emmi Sellman had 14 kills and 15 digs for a double-double.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Lions had the edge in every statistical category but blocks. At the net, USC finished 14.0 to 12.0 over Penn State for its eighth match in double digits. Penn State hit .229 to the Trojans' .188 and had more kills (62-49), assists (58-45), service aces (7-6), and digs (65-58).
Penn State made short work of the opening frame to nab a 25-13 win. The Lions hit .542 with 15 kills (2e, 24att) and held the Trojans to .000 hitting (6k, 6e) on 21 swings. Sellman and Maggie Mendelson led PSU with four kills apiece.
Sr. MB Rylie McGinest had three kills on seven swings to hit .429 and Faumuina and Mullen each added three kills in set two. This time, the Trojans had 12 digs and served two aces to stay toe-to-toe with the Lions, but Penn State came away with a 25-22 win for a 2-0 lead in the match behind a nine-kill set by Martin. PSU hit .333 with 15 kills (4e) on 33 attacks.
Innocent passers fell victim to three service aces by Mullen and USC put up five blocks to change its fortunes and claim a 25-19 win in the third. Mullen, Wijay, and So. MB Mia Tvrdy each picked up two kills and had the Trojans hitting .148 over the Lions' .031. Martin led PSU with five kills but also had five errors to register .000 hitting.
Martin (4) and Sellman (6) combined for 10 kills and Penn State hit .212 in set four, but a balanced USC offense hit its stride to rack a .353 hitting percentage with 16 kills (4e) on 34 attacks. Wijay led the way with four kills while Faumuina, Messer, Mullen, and Ford each logged three kills apiece. Deckert and Sr. DS Gala Trubint each logged four digs in a 25-19 win to lift the Trojans to a fifth set.
The score was tied seven times and the lead changed hands four times in the fifth, but Martin herself proved to be too much for USC. The Lions' pin collected eight of PSU's nine kills and had five digs and two blocks in the final frame. Wijay had three kills and Faumuina picked up two as USC hit .129 over Penn State's .114. Both teams played exceptional floor defense, but USC had a slight 18-17 edge in digs. The Trojans picked up 3.5 blocks and moved into a 12-all tie on a Faumuina kill before Martin's block-kill-kill sequence ended a 15-13 win for the Lions.

UP NEXT

The Trojans head to Columbus, Ohio, to take on Ohio State (3-6, 0-1 Big Ten) on Saturday, Sept. 27. The teams will meet at Covelli Center for first serve at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) and be shown live on a Big Ten Plus stream.

MATCH NOTES

USC fell to 2-4 all-time against Penn State and to 0-2 in matches played against the Lions at Rec Hall (both five-setters).
The Trojans moved to 36-14 in conference openers and to 15-9 when they open conference play on the road.
USC goes to 159-111 in five-set matches with a 66-56 mark on the road. The Trojans are 2-1 in five-set matches this season.
Two different Trojans produced double-doubles in the same match for the third time in a row.
USC reached double-digit blocks (14.0) for the eighth time.

For more information on the USC women's volleyball team and a complete schedule and results, please visit USCTrojans.com/WVB. Fans of the Women of Troy can follow @USCWomensVolley on Facebook, X, TikTok, and Instagram.