The No. 9 Penn State men's volleyball team swept their way to victory as the Nittany Lions (4-2, EIVA 2-0) defeated Juniata (30-16, 30-22, 30-19) and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne (30-19, 30-25, 30-28) in a pair of three-game sweeps this weekend in Rec Hall.
The Lions were without the services of middle hitter Zach Slenker, and sophomore Carlos Guerra dressed in street clothes this weekend, unable to play. Junior Josh Briggs once again filled the role for Slenker while true freshman Richard Schneider got his first two collegiate starts this weekend.
"Richard had a great week of practice," said Penn State coach Mark Pavlik. "Our whole team has been sick, and Richard played well during the week so we went with that."
Against Juniata (1-5, 0-3 EIVA), the Lions came out red-hot and opened up a 15-9 lead at the technical timeout. Penn State stayed hot the rest of the first game and hit an astounding .722 compared to Juniata's .091 hitting percentage.
"We executed our game plan," said sophomore Zeljko Koljesar. "We followed what the coaches have been telling us to do and practice paid off."
In game two, the Lions had a lead at the break again, only this time to see Juniata cut Penn State's lead to 18-17. Penn State fueled the Juniata attack in this game with service errors. A net error by Juniata cost them a tie at 19 and from there the Lions made them pay. The Lions closed game two with an 11-4 run, winning the game 30-22.
"We didn't take enough time with our toss," said sophomore Kevin Hodge. "We rushed things early on in the second game. We wanted to take it to them real fast, but we played tight."
The Lions pulled most of their starters in game three to give some other guys some time and experience. Freshman setter Nate Matthews saw his most action of the season and chipped in with 14 assists in the match. Senior Steve Aird took over the libero position and added two digs.
"No matter who we have out there, we expect the effort and execution," said Pavlik.
Penn State hit .515 for the match, while Juniata hit just .081. Koljesar led the team in kills with 16 and hit .591. Junior John Mills, Schneider, and Hodge combined for 20 kills in the match. Junior setter Jose Quinones led the team in assists with 26 and digs with six.
Saturday night, Penn State looked as if they were going let IPFW hang around in game one. Koljesar opened up the lead with four aces in a span of a 7-0 run off of his serve. The Lions won game one 30-19, and held IPFW to a -.042 hitting percentage.
"It's basics, every time we go up and serve Pav says take it slow, throw it high and go get it," said Koljesar.
IPFW (2-2) opened game two up fast with a 6-2 lead, but Penn State after calling timeout went on to lead at the technical timeout 15-12. The run was highlighted by freshman libero Ricky Mattei's dive into the stands saving a ball. The Mastodons would get no closer than two the rest of the way and Penn State won game two 30-25.
Game three against IPFW was the most competitive game Penn State would see this weekend. The match was back and forth as there was six ties and four lead changes. Penn State took advantage of IPFW service errors late in the game and held on to win game three 30-28.
Serving against IPFW was key, as the Lions had 10 aces to the Mastodons two.
"We have put more emphasis on the service game," said Pavlik. "We practice real hard on serves, we want to get to 15 first or be real close at 15. When the match is close like that you want to let the opponents make the errors, and then when you are in your groove go ahead and rip serves."
Jose Quinones has been hampered by his thumb since the trip to Hawaii, but against IPFW he had 41 assists, five digs, and three kills.
"My thumb still hurts, but precision wise I feel I'm in a groove," said Quinones. "I felt anything I set was going to be a good set, the passers though really helped me out tonight."
Koljesar led the team in kills again with 13, and Mills had 10 kills and hit .438. Hodge and Schneider each had nine kills, while Ricky Mattei had seven digs.
Penn State next weekend has two league matches at Rec Hall against Rutgers-Newark, and NJIT both 7:30 p.m. start times.
