Spikers pull trigger on UCLA

It's funny how volleyball works out that way.

Surprising? No, especially not to Lion coach Mark Pavlik.

"You can have one guy swing for high numbers," Pavlik said. "But you have to have balance. Against good teams, you can't do that."

The Lions (6-1) used great team play to defeat defending champion, No. 2 UCLA on Thursday in four games (15-11, 15-11, 14-16 15-6) then came up short against No. 3 Hawaii Friday losing in four games (6-15, 12-15, 15-5 10-15). They finished up their weekend by defeating Laval University of Quebec two games to one.

Pavlik knew coming in UCLA was one of the top blocking teams in the nation. To counteract it, he used his middle hitters in a different way by getting them to attack before the UCLA blockers were in proper position. Penn State middle hitters Brad Miller and Sergio Pampena each finished the match with 11 kills on 24 and 26 attempts respectively.

This strategy by the Lions forced a change in the lineup for the Bruins. The nation's top individual block specialist Tom Stillwell was first a non-factor, then found himself on the bench.

"We controlled Stillwell pretty well," Pavlik said. "The slide play worked well. A little bit of UCLA's experience showed. We were able to take more advantage of that now than we will be able to later in the year."

Another problem Bruin coach Al Scates encountered during the match was the ineffectiveness of his starting setter, Brandon Taliaferro. Playing in his first high-pressure match, Taliaferro wilted like a flower pedal on a hot window sill.

Down two games to none, Scates pulled the trigger and replaced Taliaferro with redshirt sophomore Eric Vallely. Scates' change worked as the Bruins eked a win in game three. Taliaferro returned in game four but the Lions put kills away at a 54 percent clip to finish off the Bruins.

All five hitters for the Lions finished in double figures in kills with Ivan Contreras paving the way with 26, Jason Kepner 24 and Tony Mazzullo set his Penn State career-high with 15. Mazzullo and Kepner had 12 and 11 digs respectively.

Paul Nihipali led the Bruins with a match-high 36 kills, 14 digs and seven blocks. Fred Robins and Adam Navae each had a dozen kills. UCLA had its problems with serving racking up 28 service errors.

"The whole match was a team effort," Pavlik said.

Unlike the crisp play against UCLA, the Lions came out as quite a different team against Hawaii. In front of nearly nine thousand crazed Rainbow fans, Penn State could not find a consistent offensive rhythm.

That crowd became like a seventh man. Lion setter Daniel Pollock did his best to distribute sets to all attackers, but four times during the match Pollock's set fell aimlessly to the court without an attacker nearby.

Down two games to none, Pavlik used the break between games two and three to get his club out of the hostile atmosphere and regroup.

"To crawl back in that kind of environment," Pavlik said, "speaks volumes of where we are right now."

The Rainbows finished with five players in double figure in kills. Jason Ring led with 23 kills and Rick Tune had 19 on just 26 attempts. Naveh Milo and Aaron Wilton paced the Hawaii defense with 14 digs each.

Contreras and Kepner paced the Lions with a match-high 32 and 24 kills respectively. Kepner led the defense with nine digs. He said the Rainbows did not allow the full compliment of attackers to play the style they did against UCLA.

"I think we got real predictable," Kepner said. "We got to the point where the ball was going to Ivan or I every time. They could just play defense where the ball was coming."

The Lions final match was a best of three, rally-scoring affair against Laval. Pavlik said this might have been their toughest match because they had to catch the team plane right after the match. They seemed to play with a sense of urgency as Laval won the first game. He added the Lions' physical play overcame the Canadian club allowing them to take the last two games before the long plane ride back to Happy Valley.

Penn State greatly improved its showing in Honolulu from last year. The Lions lost all three of their matches and won just a single game. It was a team goal to improve its showing against the top teams in the nation.

"We had a real good weekend," Pavlik said. "No matter what the record, this weekend was a success."

Being a senior on the team, Kepner knows both UCLA and Hawaii will be roadblocks in the Lions run to a national title. But the showing the team had will bring nothing but positives to the morale of the club.

"Any time you get to play a UCLA or Hawaii and you play well enough to win," Kepner said, "it becomes a big confidence builder for the next time you meet them."