Spikers continue dominant play

Another day, another win in three games for Penn State.

The Nittany Lions used as little of their weekend as possible to post two more wins. They were rude guests at George Mason on Friday night, winning 15-10, 15-7 and 15-7. Penn State returned to Rec Hall Saturday night and made quick work of New Jersey Tech, 15-2, 15-10 and 15-10.

Penn State coach Mark Pavlik was quite satisfied with how the Lions (10-1, 3-0 EIVA) took care of their opponents.

"We're real pleased with how the week went, both in the training gym and on the competition court," Pavlik said. "It's nice to see the guys dig a little bit deeper and say this is a match we shouldn't lose."

Once again, Pavlik used his first team in only game one against New Jersey Tech. Nevertheless, Lion senior Jason Kepner used his playing time very efficiently. He put away 10 kills on 11 attempts and added three blocks, two of them solo.

Highlander coach Dave DeNure was honest with his assessment of Kepner's value to the Lions.

"When you have Jason Kepner on your team, you are going to be one of the better teams in the country," DeNure said. "That's just the way it is."

Dave Gealey led the Lions with 13 kills and Brad Miller was also in double figures with 10. Penn State hit 42 percent for the match and had just 16 hitting errors on 122 attempts.

New Jersey Tech (3-4) was paced offensively by Harold Nazaire, who put away a match-high 16 kills. Fernando Fuentes and A.J. Mihalic added 11 each. Nazaire led the Highlanders with 11 digs.

DeNure said the inexperience of Nazaire and Fuentes showed against the veteran-filled Lions. Nazaire is a sophomore, while Fuentes is just a freshman.

"Penn State knows (Nazaire) is our go-to-guy, and they defended him well," DeNure said. "He had flashes of good play, but overall he didn't have the match we needed."

Pavlik said the Lions' match against George Mason was their best of the season. Miller led the Lions with 16 kills and Kepner added 14. Penn State hit 42 percent compared to the Patriots 20 percent.

With more fans in attendance because of alumni weekend, Pavlik was pleased not only with his team's performance of the court but also its demeanor.

"We we're real business like down there," Pavlik said. "We never did anything to let the crowd get on us."

Senior co-captain Ivan Contreras said the team is improving because of the work it's been doing outside of competition. He added there is still plenty of work to be done.

"We're doing really well in practice. That's where things are picking up," Contreras said. "We need to serve better and improve a little defensively."

A key element the Lions improved on over the weekend was reducing net violations. They were starting to become a problem for the team, but Contreras said with time the Lions can eliminate net violations.

"Maybe people don't notice, but we have four or five we shouldn't have," he said. "We need more mental toughness to get rid of those. We just need to focus more on the court."

Penn State also should be improving in the national polls. Thanks to losses by No. 1 Stanford and No. 2 Brigham Young last week, the No. 3 Lions should be move into the top spot when the new USA Today poll is released tomorrow. Pavlik gave traditional coaches' answers concerning Penn State's probable rank as the nation's best.

"We're going to have so many number one teams this year because everything is so balanced," he said. "In the end, you don't care what the polls are until you're done with the Final Four. It's nice for program recognition, but that and a $1.25 will get a sticky down at the Diner."