Spikers start season off slow

By TONY MAUER
Collegian Staff Writer

To err is human, to forgive divine.

Unfortunately for the Penn State men's volleyball team, they continuously erred, and No. 5 Ohio State was anything but forgiving.

The Buckeyes (1-0), behind the strong efforts of sophomores Rene Esteves, Angel Aja and Jose Pereira, defeated the Nittany Lions 15-8, 15-12, 15-8 last night at Rec Hall.

The Lions (0-1), who committed 20 service errors and 31 attacking errors, were unable to take advantage of the fact that they kept each of the match's three games close.

"We did a good job of getting side outs and keeping it close," said middle blocker Sergio Pampena.

"Unfortunately we made a couple of mistakes here and there ( the kind of things you can't do versus a good team."

Ohio State middle hitter Rene Esteves agreed that errors plagued the Lions.

"It was a matter of which team made less mistakes," the sophomore said. "We just played cleaner volleyball tonight."

After the game, Buckeye coach Pete Hanson thought his team executed well.

"We felt comfortable running through the middle," he said. "(Penn State) played really well, but both teams have a lot to work on."

Errors aside, Penn State did have several bright spots, which should help the Lions in preparing for Thursday night's home match against No. 4 Pepperdine.

"Sergio played really well," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "Brad (Miller) played well, too."

Seniors Pampena (19 kills and 6 blocks), Tony Mazzullo (15 kills, 7 digs and 4 blocks) and Dan Pollock (49 assists) each had strong games, while some key underclassmen got some early experience versus a strong Buckeyes squad.

Freshmen Jason Hawkins (7 kills and 1 block) and Jose Quinones (5 assists) both saw substantial action, which should help the Lions later in the season.

Sophomore Eric Houston (4 kills and 1 dig) also saw time before being pulled due to illness.

"Houston had been hospitalized with a virus," said Pavlik. "After the first game he told me he didn't have anything left in him."

The Lions will have to work on a few things, however, before their match with Pepperdine if they want to avoid a similar outcome.

"There isn't any one thing you can point out to work on tonight," Pollock said. "I don't know … blocking, defense, easy points.

"Blocking," he added. "There is a big emphasis on it. It's how you win points."

Pampena, meanwhile, suggested that serving is another aspect his team needs to improve on.

"We're serving pretty bad," he said. "If you miss by a foot or two trying to stick a hard serve it's okay, but when the ball doesn't make it to the net or over, it's bad."

With some work ahead of them, however, Pavlik is not discouraged.

Said Pavlik: "It's a long season. We weren't converting tonight."