It has been a long road, but they might finally get there.
After reaching the NCAA Men's Volleyball Final Four in 1999, 2000 and 2001, this year might be the year when Penn State seniors Jose Quinones and Jason Hawkins get a taste of the national championship.
By defeating conference rival Concordia last Saturday, the No. 5 Nittany Lions clinched their 14th EIVA conference crown, earning the right to host the EIVA championships on April 25 and 27. If Penn State wins the EIVA championships, which it has in 10 of 11 seasons since 1991, the team will advance to the NCAA championships, which will be played in Rec Hall on May 2 and 4.
"The fact that we've always been pretty good, that it's my last year, and that it's in Rec Hall, means it could be a storybook ending," said Quinones, a team co-captain.
Winning the national championship would indeed be the ultimate ending to a story that almost never got started.
That's right -- last year's AVCA All-American, Asics/Volleyball Magazine first team All-American and EIVA Uvaldo Acosta Memorial Player of the Year was overlooked by many of the top volleyball programs in the United States.
One would expect coaches to have been on the heels of Quinones to recruit him. Instead, when Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik first saw him at the USA Volleyball's 1996 Junior National Championships, gifted setters Josh Lukens and Brad Griffith were the talk among university coaches (both have since attended Stanford).
Discovering Quinones was like finding a diamond in the rough. Of all the players on the 36 courts at the Orlando convention center, Pavlik was watching Quinones.
"I'm wandering around up on Court 35, and I'm watching this Puerto Rican team play against this much bigger team," Pavlik recalls. "The biggest kid on the team was the setter, and he had hitters 5-foot-11 and 6-foot, and I'm watching these kids get good swing after good swing, and I'm seeing this setter smiling and having a great time playing. I'm watching him, and I see these huge hands. I'm thinking, 'I really like this kid.' I watched him three or four more times, and I was sold this kid could be a great setter."
The young, skinny, undersized setter was Jose Quinones from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, who, after being redshirted in 1998, would eventually lead Penn State to the NCAA championships in 1999, where the Lions fell to No. 1 Brigham Young.
Since joining the starting lineup in 1999, Quinones has been named first team All-EIVA each season. Quinones' career reached its prime in 2001, when he finished the year with 5,145 career assists (an average of 12.91 assists per game), shattering the school assist record. In addition to averaging 13.15 assists per game, he finished fifth on the team in blocking with 0.71 a game and second on the team with 1.83 digs per game.
With the opportunity to succeed academically and with the opportunity to play for a program rich in tradition, Quinones is grateful for the opportunity to play at Penn State.
"I couldn't have asked for a better scenario," Quinones said. "I'm playing the sport I love to play."
Junior outside hitter Carlos Guerra, Quinones' teammate for three years, said that Quinones' leadership has been crucial to the success of the team.
"He always finds a way for us to win, and that's really important," Guerra said. "When you have a good, veteran setter, in important game decisions, you know he's going to make the right decisions and that helps a lot."
Pavlik said he has enjoyed seeing Quinones develop into one of the best setters in the NCAA.
"He's gotten stronger, he's gotten quicker," Pavlik said. "He's worked hard at some of the things we've asked him to work hard at. I just really enjoy coaching him. It's been an honor."
Quinones' parents, Luis and Nadja, noted their son's growth not only as a player, but also as a student.
"We've really enjoyed watching him mature as a player and academically," Quinones' father, Luis, said.
Though Hawkins' story has taken a lot of twists and turns, he has fought back through injury and frustration to return to a team on the verge of a possible national championship.
Coming out of Lake Mary H.S. in Orlando, Florida, Hawkins was recruited by the University of Southern California before opting to attend Penn State.
"I knew that Penn State was the best on the East Coast," Hawkins said. "It's the place to be to play at a high competitive level."
Sophomore year in 2000 was a breakout season for Hawkins. Against Loyola, he set a career high with 23 kills and 10 digs after notching 21 kills on two prior occasions (against Juniata and Ball State).
Then the twists and turns came. In October 2000, Hawkins underwent knee surgery, and worked to return to the lineup in time for the regular season. When the team started practicing in January, Hawkins began suffering from back pain. An MRI detected a degenerated disk.
"There really wasn't anything I could do about it -- just rest and take off a year," Hawkins said.
His father, Bob Hawkins, said it was difficult to see Jason sit out last year.
"He is so competitive, he hates to sit, he wants to be out there playing, so it was really frustrating to see him go through a knee injury and then a back injury," he said.
Hawkins has bounced back to be a staple in Penn State's lineup. He has had a successful 2002 campaign as he is currently fifth on the team in kills with 137 (an average of 2.17 a game) and block assists with 36.
"Hawk plays hard no matter what shape his body is in," Pavlik said. "He's just the tough, gritty type of kid that you want in a program. Just to be around somebody that has fought back continually, it kind of makes you feel good to walk into the practice gym with people like that on your team."
After four years with Penn State, it's hard for the father to imagine the son's collegiate volleyball career coming to a close.
"It's sad to see him move onto that next level," the elder Hawkins said, with his wife Debbie reminding him that Jason's career isn't quite over.
"He still has the Final Four," she pointed out.
After nearly ending his volleyball career because of his plaguing injuries, there may not be a better finish for Hawkins than to win the national championship.
"Winning a national championship would be satisfying to me because I would prove to myself that I was capable of battling through adversity," Hawkins said. "(After the injuries) I was really down there for a while, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to play volleyball anymore."
