Spikers unable to shake Saturday slump

A pattern is forming for the Penn State men's volleyball team, one the team might want to break.

For the past three weekends, the Nittany Lions have won a match Friday and lost Saturday.

This weekend, the Lions beat Ball State 3-1 (11-15, 15-10, 15-4, 15-10) Friday and lost 2-3 (8-15, 12-15, 15-9, 15-12, 19-21) Saturday to Rutgers-Newark.

"We haven't been winning a lot of matches," Penn State swing hitter David Gealey said. "It's been win one, lose one, and we couldn't get a good momentum going."

Friday's match marked Gealey's return after being diagnosed with mononucleosis early February.

Rutgers hasn't defeated the Lions in recent years, but it was looking to change that during Saturday's match. Penn State had yet to win a fifth game this season, but when the match against the Scarlet Raiders came down to the pivotal game five, the Lions believed they could pull the match out.

The Lions went up 2-0 in the rally score, but the Raiders were determined to keep the game close. Rutgers pulled ahead 8-5, but the Lions weren't ready to call it quits either.

They regained the lead at 12-11 but couldn't hold it. Rutgers went up 13-12 and Penn State never saw the lead again. The match ended when Rutgers' Jason Hamernick served an ace to win the game 21-19.

"We were embarrassed tonight," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "I was very disappointed that when we came out we were not ready to play."

To start off the match, the Raiders went ahead of the Lions 10-3 in the first game. Penn State tried to gain momentum, but Rutgers ran roughshod over them 15-8.

The second game started much like the first when the Raiders jumped out to a 9-3 lead. Penn State battled back to tie the score at 11, but Rutgers finished off the Lions 15-12.

The Lions then began to take control of the match and went up 4-0 in the third game. Rutgers came back and went ahead 5-4, but the lead was short lived. Penn State beat the Raiders 15-9.

In the fourth game, the Lions lost a bit of momentum and quickly found themselves behind 1-7, but they regrouped and came back to tie the game at 7. Rutgers pulled ahead again 10-8, but Penn State fought back to win 15-12.

"We got them kind of when they were in transition," Rutgers coach Ronald Larsen said. "Penn State made more mistakes than normal. They gave us some chances and I think we played well because we capitalized on their mistakes."

Mistakes made it easy for Ball State in the beginning of Friday's match. Although Penn State jumped out to a 5-0 lead, Ball State converted on numerous scoring opportunities and eventually surpassed Penn State to win 15-11.

The Lions were shaken but came back tougher in the second game. The two teams fought back and forth for control of the game, but Penn State won the battle and defeated the Cardinals 15-10.

After the Cardinals were disassembled 4-15 by the Lions in the third game, Ball State scored first in the fourth game.

Penn State quickly tied the game at 1 and after that, the team never gave up the lead. Ball State pulled back at times to keep the game close, but the Lions defeated the Cardinals by a final score of 15-10.

Even though the emotion was flowing for Penn State after Friday's win, swing hitter Steve Aird believes the team is not using the advantage as well as it should.

"I think we've got to come up and just be a lot more emotional and a lot more fired up," Aird said. "If something great happens, we don't respond to it as quickly. If something bad happens, we all hang our heads. That can't happen."