This match was very slow paced. The Lions' lacked the energy they had last week and played very lackadaisical in the opening points. The block also started out slow, but that could be due to the different look the Tigers presented, without star outside hitter Blake Robinson. Penn State's block picked up steam as the match went along and out-blocked Princeton by a wide margin, 11-3, including a 6.5 output in game three.
The offense was dominating from the start and took advantage of the smaller Princeton block. Superfrosh Alex Gutor continued to open eyes with an 11-for-19 hitting performance, while adding three aces and three blocks.
Gutor has been a catalyst for the Penn State offense since being inserted permanently into the starting line up against Rutgers. The Penn State middle of Kowal, junior Phil Small and sophomore Nate Meerstein controlled the Princeton block and never allowed the Tigers to be in a position to stop the outside hitters.
"[Saturday] was an uninspired, workman-like effort," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said. "We did what we had to do to win, and it was a pretty dominating effort. The players did exactly what we asked them to do."
The Lions' service game was at their best on Saturday. Penn State kept the Tigers on their heels by mixing up its serves and recorded eight aces in the process. Mattei recalls one situation when this occurred.
"I remember one run with Alex, he bang three straight balls hard, and then I saw him go back with the attitude of 'I'm gonna bang this one even harder,' " Mattei said. "They were all the way back at the end line so I told him to drop it short. It didn't result in an ace but we still got the point. I thought we brought a lot more heat at their place but we did a better job [on Saturday]."
This was Penn State's 16th EIVA title and sixth in a row. The Lions hold an astonishing 43-3 record in the conference tournament and have only lost three games in the last 12 matches.
