Spikers annihilate AUPR

By JOSH DAECHE
Collegian Staff Writer

The American University of Puerto Rico's cheering section showed up. Its team did not.

The No. 11 Penn State men's volleyball team (8-10, 3-0 Tait) took on division foe AUPR (9-7) last night in Rec Hall in front of a crowd of 210.

The Lions swept the match in 31 minutes (15-0, 15-0, 15-1). The match showed the tale of two teams. The home team had won six of its last nine matches. The other started hot now is on a plane headed south.

The Eagles had only 12 kills in the match, while Penn State set a school record by hitting .780 as a team.

AUPR came into the match with a starting lineup consisting solely of basketball players. The entire Eagle squad was found academically ineligible earlier this season, and in previous matches against Princeton and Rutgers-Newark, the squad only could muster an average of two points.

Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said prior to the match that he wanted to rest his key players in preparation for tomorrow's match against Rutgers-Newark.

The Lions started defensive specialist Dan Schall, middle hitter Dan Hoechst, outside hitter George Papadakis, outside hitter Scott Lapp, outside hitter Steve Aird and middle hitter Josh Briggs.

Though Penn State hit .780 as a team, its best performance came from Schall, who was perfect on the night. He started in all three games and had one kill, one service ace and 34 assists.

As bad as AUPR may have looked last night, Pavlik said he looked at this match at the beginning of the season as one he thought might give the Lions a challenge.

"Two years they played us real tough down there," Pavlik said. "In the beginning of the season, it looked like it was going to be a tough match since they were in the EIVA. We knew we had to win it, and given what we've been through, this type of match came in very, very handy for us -- since we have taken a beating the last two weekends."

Pavlik knows Friday's match against Rutgers-Newark will be a lot tougher than the opponent last night.

"We're going to have a volleyball team to play against, not a basketball team." Pavlik said. "I think the rest helped us in preparing our guys."

The rest will hopefully pay off for the Penn State, who has been pestered by injuries to some of their starters.

However, one player who will not return for Penn State this season is backup middle hitter John Hahn, who has a torn rotator cuff and will undergo surgery in March.