Winning the EIVA tournament is nothing new to the Penn State men's volleyball team - it has advanced to the NCAA Final Four in 10 of the past 11 seasons.
With a 14-0 conference record during the regular season, the Nittany Lions look to continue their dominance in this year's EIVA tournament when they host Springfield tomorrow in the EIVA quarterfinals. The match is slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. in Rec Hall.
The Lions (22-3, 14-0 EIVA Tait) come into tomorrow's matchup with high expectations -- expectations that go as far back as a No. 1 ranking to start the season.
"We're obviously the biggest team in the East Conference," junior outside hitter Carlos Guerra said. "Everybody's expecting us to win every single year. That's what we have to do, and we have to do it right now. It's now or never."
To clinch an EIVA tournament berth, Springfield (18-8, 8-3 EIVA Hay) recently defeated Queens in a play-in game. Though Springfield is the No. 8 seed in the bracket, Penn State opposite hitter Zeljko Koljesar said his team has to be prepared to switch into playoff mode.
"I'm getting more serious about it because this is it, it's coming now," he said. "You've got take it more seriously, and tell everyone to keep taking it more seriously. It's crunch time, and you have to do what you have to do and hope for the best."
With 16 of its 18 players at least 6-foot-3, Penn State has the edge over a physically undermanned Springfield team with only 10 players that height or taller.
"We're almost positive that we're going to be the most physical team they've seen all year long," Lions head coach Mark Pavlik said.
Penn State expects junior setter Tucker Short, who -- standing at 5-10 -- is his namesake, to run the Pride offense by getting the ball to his middle hitters -- James Seitelman and Brandon Mueller. Junior Greg Lardo, an outside hitter, is also putting up some good numbers for Springfield.
"We've got to take advantage of their smaller outside blockers," Pavlik said. "Our serving is going to play a big role for us, too."
This season, the Lions have dominated their opponents with their serving game. As a team, Penn State tallied 138 total service aces to its opponents' 94. Guerra agrees that fundamentals will be the key to a first-round victory over Springfield.
"As long as we come out strong, do the things that we're supposed to do, do the things we've been doing in practice, it's not going to be a tough match," he said.
Though the Lions are bigger, more physical and have more experience, Koljesar offered a word of caution ,saying that Springfield can't be overlooked.
"If you take a team lightly, it's going to come back and bite you," he said. "We're still going to go out there and play our best."
In the playoffs, anyone on a given day can pose a threat.
"If a team gets hot, we have to watch out for that," Koljesar said. "We've just got to keep doing what we've been doing for the past 14 matches. We are the favorites, so we just have to prove it again."
