Men’s volleyball remains undefeated in EIVA
The Penn State men’s volleyball team eluded a 2-1 deficit in Saturday’s game to seal a weekend sweep and secure their eighth straight victory.
The No. 6 Nittany Lions started off the weekend series against the Princeton Tigers a little slow, but eventually found their way in the match.
Although Penn State took the first set in a decisive 25-19 win, they posted their lowest hitting percentage of the night.
“It took us a while to get used to their serves and our passing wasn’t as good as it normally is and that makes it difficult to run a good offense,” said senior Aaron Russell
In the final two sets of the night, errors became a prevalent issue on one side of the court. Princeton amassed a total of 28 service errors in the match.
The bulk of errors by the Orange led to lower game stats for the Nittany Lions.
In set two, Penn State’s hitting percentage went through the ceiling as they posted ten kills on 11 attempts for a .818 team percentage in the set.
“We were patient until about the end of game 2, then it seemed like we wanted to play our rhythm,” said head coach Mark Pavlik.
Penn State closed off the Tigers in the third set to take a 3-0 victory. The win was the Nittany Lions’ seventh in a row and fifth in straight sets.
“I think a lot of our turn came in practice, we just wanted to make a statement that we were going to work our butts off every single day of practice,” said Russell. “I guess tonight wasn’t the best example of that but last week was a great example of how we were working.”
Despite an easy win, thanks to the large amount of errors by the Tigers, Penn State still had far from a perfect match.
“I don’t think we particularly blocked well, I don’t think we played defense particularly well, but I thought we served the heck out of the ball,” said Pavlik.
Penn State only had eight service errors and six aces on the night.
Game two, against the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) on Saturday, brought troubles for a very confident Nittany Lion squad.
“The first half of the match they served the ball very well and after having a night when we didn’t have to pass very many serves, to come in here tonight, it was a different kind of serving we saw,” said Pavlik.
Other then TJ Jurko’s typical spin-serve, Penn State received multiple types of servers from the Highlanders.
After NJIT unexpectedly took the first set, Penn State rallied back for a critical 25-15 win in set two with a great team effort.
However, NJIT was not done giving Penn State a hard time when they picked up their blocking and took set three 25-23. Penn State faced a lot of hands at the net against the Highlanders, being blocked 12.5 times throughout the match.
“Last night (Princeton) also had the bigger block, so it’s a little bit weird sometimes when you don’t have the big block in front of you where you don’t have to aim as high when you’re trying to swing,” added Russell.
Being a set away from losing their winning streak, the Nittany Lions’ play picked up tremendously.
Penn State powered through the fourth set, compiling ten team kills to force a fifth set.
In the deciding set, NJIT played the Nittany Lions hard, but it was the desperation and determination of the men in blue as Penn State survived and extended their winning streak to eight.
“From the later part of game three on, I thought we played well,” said Pavlik. “Tonight’s match was a great show of resiliency, coming of a pretty emotion and intense match versus Princeton.”
The Nittany Lions are now 6-0 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EVIA) after defeating both of their conference opponents this weekend.
Freshman Jalen Penrose had a standout weekend, posting 31 kills in total and held a .571 hitting percentage in game one.
Penn State travels to George Mason next Saturday for a crucial EIVA game against the No. 24 Patriots.
Trey Cochran is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email mjc5789@psu.edu.
