No. 15 Penn State women’s volleyball lost to No. 6 Purdue 3-2 (23-25, 25-15, 25-20, 23-25, 11-15) Sunday afternoon at Holloway Gymnasium in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Gabby Blossom and Anjelina Starck tallied double-doubles for the Nittany Lions, while Jonni Parker and Kaitlyn Hord led the way offensively with 43 combined kills in the loss. Purdue has now won three of its last five matches against Penn State. 

Blossom tied her career highs with 58 assists and 20 digs against the Boilermakers, who rallied from a 2-1 deficit to beat the Nittany Lions in a top 15 matchup. Hord was extremely efficient with a .500 hitting percentage and only two attack errors.

Senior libero Jenna Hampton had a career-high 26 digs in another outstanding performance for the Tampa native, who made an incredible save late in the fourth set while nearly running into the referee stand. Cassie Kuerschen, Quinn Menger, and Maddy Bilinovic were Penn State’s only substitutes.

Starck started her third straight match at outside hitter for the Nittany Lions, who were again without Erika Pritchard’s services. Pritchard was on the sideline wearing a boot on her right foot during the Dig Pink match against Rutgers Friday at Rec Hall.

The Nittany Lions (13-5, 6-2 Big Ten) have a difficult road trip to No. 12 Minnesota and No. 3 Wisconsin coming up next weekend. Penn State has a chance to regroup in practice before arguably its toughest weekend of conference matches this season.