Spikers polish off Juniata, prolong win streak

HUNTINGTON -- Just like the faithful spotters in the Energizer Bunny commercials, Juniata was looking for a win, but all it found was a woodchuck.

For the third time this season No. 2 Penn State brushed aside its rivals to the south winning in four games last night 8-15, 15-10, 15-3 and 15-12.

Ivan Contreras paced the Lion attack with 28 kills and Jason Kepner added 18. Chris Fazio put away 27 kills for Juniata, and Andy Kurl and Tim Shawaryn added 22 and 21 respectively. Mark Wodzinski, Kurl and Shawaryn had 10 digs each for the Eagles.

"It's typical in this gym. I've been down here enough to know that this team feeds off of its crowd," Pavlik said. "They got into our offensive rhythm. They we're blocking balls one-on-one that we've got to put away."

That crowd was a boisterous one and got even more excited when Juniata (12-4) got contributions from its entire starting lineup to win game one. The Juniata student section started early getting behind its team.

"We kind of expected it," Lion setter Dan Pollock said. "We knew warming up it was going to be tough. You've just got to block that out."

Eagle coach Ryan Patton said last night's effort was his club's best this season against the Lions.

"Our goal was to make this match last until 9:30," Patton said. "They just didn't make mistakes at the end."

Pavlik said the atmosphere in Juniata's Memorial Gym was similar to the situation the Lions faced in Hawaii. He said at times it was difficult to communicate on the court.

"We need more matches like this," Pavlik said, "where we're in a situation where there's a lot of noise and the team on the other side can sideout to prolong that noise."

Pollock said the team wasn't mentally focused to start the match and the team's passing wasn't as crisp as it should have been. Shawaryn had four of his five service aces in game one for Juniata.

"Jason (Kepner) and Tony (Mazzullo) started putting it on the money," Pollock said. "Once we started running the offense, we were fine."

After losing game three by such a large margin, it appeared Juniata might have just packed it in, but Shawaryn would not let that happen.

"Tim is a 'put the team on my shoulder kind of guy'," Patton said of his junior outside hitter. "We count on him to make a good first contact."

Juniata hosts the Division III national championship in April. Because of the way the Eagles played last night, Pavlik said they have as good a chance as any to win that title. He added with the home crowd behind them, it gives Juniata that much more of an advantage.

To finish off the Eagles and quiet the crowd for good, Penn State went to Contreras and Kepner often. Pollock said he might have the most luxuries at his disposal than of any other setter in the nation.

"It makes my job a lot easier because you know in crunch time they (Contreras and Kepner) want the ball," Pollock said. "When a hitter wants the ball that gives the setter a lot of confidence because you can go anywhere with the ball and the chances of getting a kill are pretty good."