Young meets old during spiker Blue-White match

Two different breeds of Nittany Lions took the court for the men's volleyball team on Friday afternoon at Rec Hall during the annual Blue-White game. Both breeds wanted to have fun, but the match had a deeper meaning for the younger breed.

This match marked the end of Penn State's preseason, and it looks like the team is on the right road heading into the regular season.

"I think this is a strong team we have going for us this year," coach Mark Pavlik said. "It's a group of pretty hard workers and we are definitely going to need that."

Among those hard workers is the powerful tandem of Dan Pollock and Brad Miller who led to the Blue team's victories. Pollock's consistent setting led to 16 kills by Miller. Swing hitter David Gealey had a strong performance for the White team and led them with 14 kills.

Both teams benefited by the intense play of the newcomers who seemed to give a back lighting to the bright performance of the older players.

"What we have is people who are going to make the returning vets look good," Pavlik said.

That is exactly what they did. Jose Quinones had a solid performance for the White team and paved the way for his teammates to make some scoring plays. The same was true for the rest of the freshmen.

The team veterans know the value of these games for both the team as a whole and the younger players.

"It gives us time to evaluate what we did in practice," Gealey said. "It's also a good opportunity for the younger players to get some good playing time."

Pollock said that playing time is exactly what the team needs because it is a bit inexperienced. But with all teams, it takes time and practice to improve.

Some of the older players recognize that the newcomers, who are right on their heels, play another role in helping the team develop.

"Every day in practice we need to make ourselves get better," Gealey said. "The second team has to push the first team to make us get better."

Aside from evaluating their skills, the team also got the chance to unwind during the match -- something that they do not have the time to do during a regular game.

"We get to tease each other," Gealey said. "You want to beat them and they want to beat you, but you're still friends throughout the whole thing."