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Cal Fisher made the most of returning to the starting lineup after being sidelined for the first month of the season.
The All-American opposite finished with both a match-high 15 kills on a .367 attack percentage and three aces as No. 4/4 Penn State beat No. 2/2 UCLA 25-21, 18-25, 25-19, 25-17 on Saturday in University Park, Pennsylvania.
Fisher had a game-high seven kills in the final game to help secure the non-conference victory in front of a home crowd 2,405 people. The outside attacker also had an ace as part of a 6-1 run in the fourth game en route to ending UCLA’s nine-match winning streak to open the season.
This was the second match back for Fisher after missing the season’s first seven matches. The opposite came off the bench and had 13 kills in a victory against No. 10 USC on Friday.
Despite being held to less than .200 attack percentage in the first two games, the Nittany Lions out-hit the Bruins .317 to .295. Setter Cole Gogner ended with 37 assists and guided Penn State (8-1, 0-0 EIVA) to at least a .400 attack percentage in each of the final two games.
Both the Penn State starting middle attackers did not commit an attack error against the Bruins (9-1, 0-0 MPSF). Owen Rose added seven kills on a match-best .778 attack percentage, while Toby Ezeonu had five kills and hit .455.
Ezeonu also led all players with seven blocks.
Middle attacker J.R. Norris IV in the loss had 11 kills on a team-best .600 attack percentage. In addition, opposite Ido David led UCLA with 12 kills.
UCLA committed 10 service errors in its opening-game loss and finished with 20 service errors for the match – six more errors than Penn State.