After dropping the third game in each of last weekend's EIVA matches, the Penn State men's volleyball team headed to St. Francis to send a message to the EIVA.
The No. 5 Nittany Lions (17-2) did just that last night by sweeping St. Francis (11-9, 1-8 EIVA) at the Stokes Athletic Complex for the second time this season (30-25, 30-18, 35-33). Penn State's last sweep came over a month ago, when it defeated Rutgers-Newark.
With the victory, the Lions improve to a perfect 10-0 against EIVA teams this season. With only four EIVA matches remaining, Penn State looks to improve on last year's 13-1 EIVA record, and to host the EIVA championships as the No. 1 seed for the fourth consecutive year.
Lions head coach Mark Pavlik's goal from the start of the regular season has been to host the EIVA championships, and has been training the team to maintain the high level it has played at this season.
"If we play though the second half the way we played through the first half, we'll be playing in Rec Hall for the EIVA championships, and that's what we want to do," Pavlik said before a match against Rutgers-Newark.
Sophomore opposite Alex Weaver followed up hit a 14-kills performance against the New Jersey Institute of Technology last Saturday by hitting .615 for the match and by leading Penn State in kills with nine, all of which came in game three. Juniors Carlos Guerra (outside hitter), Zach Slenker (middle hitter), and Kevin Hodge (outside hitter) each tallied eight kills, while Zeljko Koljesar added seven.
In the team's first match, Penn State had a total of 59 kills to St. Francis' 37, and doubled St. Francis' hitting percentage (.226) with a .551 hitting percentage. It was more of the same in last night's contest as the Lions notched 52 kills to the Red Flash's 37. Penn State again doubled St. Francis' hitting percentage, out-hitting them .481-.213.
The Lions out-blocked the Red Flash 9-4.5 and won the digging war as sophomore libero Ricky Mattei led all players with six digs. The Lions came into the match with a different intensity than the Red Flash, Pavlik said.
"It was a big match for St. Francis," he said. "They came in thinking they didn't have anything to lose. We were very workman-like, unemotional, and even a little flat at times."
After the Lions scored their 20th point of the first game, they got more physical, Pavlik said. In game two, Penn State picked up right where they left off, controlling the game tempo and easily taking the game by a wide margin of 12 points.
The Lions had to pull off another game three upset, though, as St. Francis kept the game close through the 20s. Penn State, however, did not fizzle under the pressure.
"As the match got into the high-20s, the guys played with poise," Pavlik said. "After that, it was just a matter of time."
Though the Lions' second team was coming off of a sub-par performance in last weekend's matches by Pavlik's standards, they rebounded last night.
"We did a better job of letting them serve balls out of bounds," said Pavlik, pleased with the turn-around. "When you play on the road in front of the other team's home crowd, the dynamics change. These guys got to see what it takes to compete. It was a real good game for them after NJIT on Saturday."
Despite citing Penn State's physicality as the strongest part of the team's performance, Pavlik said that there were still some things he'd like the team to work on.
"We haven't had a good training block after Spring Break yet," Pavlik said. "We're going to have some time to address these issues and sharpen up. But I like where we're at for this time of the year."
