Spikers split in Garden State

There was a slight stall in the momentum of the Penn State men's volleyball team this weekend.

The Nittany Lions charged into their weekend road trip in New Jersey flying high from prior confidence-building wins. But when the Lions landed in the Garden State, their high hopes took a quick nose dive. Princeton (10-7) squashed Penn State (14-14) 3-0 on Friday but the Lions came back Saturday night with a 3-0 victory of their own against Rutgers-Newark (15-9). Both opponents were division rivals.

In the Lions' first game against the Tigers, they got out to a quick 7-0 lead. Boosted by a packed home crowd, however, the Ivy Leaguers came back to win the first game and the match.

"Princeton just played well," middle blocker Dan Hoechst said. "On our side of the net, we got up to a 7-0 lead and they started come back and at that point we played with them and didn't raise our level of play to play against them."

The power of the Tigers stemmed from their middle blocker Derek Devens. With a .762 hitting percentage and 16 kills, Devens' flawless offensive play overpowered the Lion defense.

"Devens has always been a thorn in our side," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "We knew going in he was a guy we would have to control."

Unable to control Devens and the Tigers, Penn State quickly fell to Princeton (15-13, 15-13, 16-14). The loss could have stopped Penn State's momentum but the Lions held a team meeting to discuss their recent problems and correct them before their next matchup against Rutgers-Newark.

The meeting worked as evidenced by the Lions' 3-0 victory over the Scarlet Raiders (15-12, 15-4, 15-11).

"I think we played a better level of volleyball on Saturday," Pavlik said. "Maybe that reason was we didn't want to lose two in a row. I think that for whatever reason we just came out stronger."

The strength of the Lions surfaced in their offense. Middle blocker Sergio Pampena registered a .727 attack percentage in the matchup. Pampena was accompanied by the notable performances of swing hitters Tony Mazzullo with 19 kills and Brad Miller with 14.

The difference between the two weekend performances of Penn State showed in the faces of the Lions. The attitude and energy on the court changed dramatically between the Princeton and Rutgers-Newark match.

"I think we had a good game against them and that meeting helped us out," setter Dan Pollock said. "We just kinda came out to have fun. When you are not having fun, you don't want to play. When we were laughing and joking around, we just played better."