Strength of schedule.
The phrase has become a staple in all of college sports, as fans can't follow college athletics anymore without knowing how strength of schedule affects a team's status in the latest BCS or RPI ranking.
Strength of schedule plays a major part in the success of the No. 10 Penn State men's volleyball team, but not necessarily because of rankings. Penn State competes in the EIVA Tait division, a division it has dominated since 1988. The Nittany Lions are 136-8 in division games over the last 15 years, having never lost more than two division games in a season. Under current Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik, the team is 83-2.
The dominance of having won its division 14 out of 15 seasons begs the question, why don't the Lions compete in a more challenging division? The strength in men's college volleyball rests far from Happy Valley, with Hawaii, BYU and UCLA having won the last three national championships. In the latest AVCA poll, eight of the top 15 teams are from California. The only teams in the top 15 that are even remotely close to Penn State are Loyola-Chicago, Lewis and Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne.
When Penn State won the national championship in 1994, it became the first non-California team to do so. For Penn State to compete in a league with the volleyball elite, it would have to play West Coast teams almost every weekend.
Because Penn State cannot compete in a conference like the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, where powerhouses Pepperdine, Hawaii and BYU compete, it must play lesser competition like St. Francis and Rutgers-Newark. Penn State's EIVA schedule makes scheduling strong non-division opponents that much more imperative.
"It's very important to play teams on their own courts and get in their gyms," Pavlik said.
Pavlik said that going on the road was not as important last year because Penn State played host to the NCAA Championship in May. However, this year, should the Lions make the final four, the team will have to travel to Long Beach, Calif., where its opponent could have a distinct home-court advantage.
Pavlik said that he always tries to put together as difficult a schedule as possible, and this year is no exception, due largely in part to the trip the team will take to the West Coast during spring break. The Lions will play back-to-back matches against No. 4 BYU and then compete in the Long Beach Invitational the following weekend against USC and No. 7 Long Beach State.
The Lions started their season with two losses in the Outrigger Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii, playing then No. 1 Hawaii and No. 7 Ball State. The Outrigger Invitational always takes place early in the season, usually in January, and Pavlik said he prefers the tough competition early.
"It shows us early in the season what we have to work on," Pavlik said.
This year, with the spring break trip out west, Penn State will have the opportunity to see what it needs to work on before tournament time. The matches against BYU, USC and Long Beach State come about two-thirds in to the season, as the Lions will have eight matches between spring break and the postseason.
