The Kansas volleyball team had a single match-point opportunity in extra points in the fourth set and then led 4-1 early in the fifth, but couldn’t quite finish off No. 2 Penn State on Monday night and lost 3-2 (22-25, 26-24, 25-16, 28-30, 12-15) in a marathon match in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Holding a 2-1 advantage, the Jayhawks erased a 19-14 deficit and staved off three set points thanks to kills by middle blocker Reese Ptacek and outside hitter Rhian Swanson, before opposite Jovana Zelenović put them ahead 26-25. But the Nittany Lions, the defending national champions, got the point they needed on a kill by Maggie Mendelson.

Swanson and fellow outside Selena Leban, a freshman from Slovenia, hit the ball into the net once apiece as the set stretched further into extra points, but KU still prolonged the set until Penn State’s Gillian Grimes had a serve deflect just barely over the net for a decisive ace.

The Jayhawks, who had won a five-setter against Vanderbilt in head coach Matt Ulmer’s debut on Saturday, went ahead early in the fifth on a pair of attack errors, but then conceded three straight points. KU trailed 13-12 before kills by Caroline Jurevicius and Emmi Sellman sealed the close win for Penn State.

KU lined up quite differently from the group of players it used in Saturday’s season opener.

Leban led all players with 20 kills on .395 hitting and added 11 digs on Monday after attempting one total attack against Vanderbilt. Swanson, one of the Jayhawks’ few veteran returners, added 18; she did not play against the Commodores.

Katie Dalton stepped in for Cristin Cline at setter and impressed with 54 assists, compared to 171 in the rest of her career combined. Ryan White recorded 13 digs. Several other players who figured into the Vanderbilt match, such as Raegan Burns, Kenzie Dean and Grace Nelson, did not appear on Monday.

The Jayhawks had a lot of success on the block. The 6-foot-7 Zelenović had two solo blocks and eight block assists to go with her 13 kills, while Ptacek added eight block assists of her own.

For Penn State, Florida transfer Kennedy Martin, who played a significant role in eliminating KU from the 2024 NCAA Tournament, had 18 kills on just .170 hitting, and Sellman got 16 on .111. Jurevicius was more efficient with 14 kills on .393, and Mendelson had 13 on just 20 attacks for a whopping .650.

The Jayhawks were game from the opening whistle, although the first set got away from them after they had led by five points on several occasions. Penn State had a key 5-1 run and another set of three straight points that gave the Nittany Lions a 20-19 lead on one of two kills by setter Izzy Starck. KU was tied at 22 on a kill by Aisha Aiono but allowed the final three points.

In the second set, KU was the team to surge late, after again relinquishing a five-point advantage. This time, the Jayhawks caught a break on a service error by Addie Lyon on set point, then staved off a second set point when Leban and Ptacek blocked Martin, then went ahead and won the game outright thanks to an error by Sellman and kill by Ptacek.

The third game was the only noncompetitive one, and it went the Jayhawks’ way. KU scored the final five points after leading 20-16, including two kills by Leban to cap off the set.

But Penn State emerged on top after the final two sets, much as it had in Horejsi Family Volleyball Arena during the 2023 postseason.

The result sent No. 14 KU to 1-1 on the year, and with another daunting task ahead as it travels to the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisconsin, to face the Wisconsin Badgers on Friday at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on Big Ten Network.