"We worked more with our block this week than we did last week," Lions coach Mark Pavlik said. "I like the practice we had this week, and it paid off."
In a return to his native Virginia, sophomore Aaron Smith emerged as a key to Penn State's success on the offensive end. In front of his family members in attendance, Smith led the team with a season-high 13 kills on 0.688 hitting.
"When we got off the bus, I told him he looked better now that we were south of the Mason-Dixon line," Pavlik said as he addressed the team after the match. The coach then pointed out that California is also south of the Mason-Dixon line, an allusion to the probable trip to Los Angeles for the NCAA tournament on May 5. Though they left the actual circus the night before, George Mason's fans helped to create a circus-like atmosphere in Finn Memorial Gymnasium.
"It was a typical Penn State-Mason match at Mason," Pavlik said. "The crowd can get into a frenzy, but we had a very mature approach to it. No matter what was going on, you couldn't tell our guys were rattled."
Indeed, many of the Lions subjected to the crowd's wrath shook off the heckling with smiles and extra incentive to end the match in three games.
The front row seemed to have been reserved for the pit bulls, as their name-calling and derision was ceaseless. At one stretch, those fans yelled that Kowal, an All-American on his way to a second such honor, looked like a bus driver. This persistent claim was equally amusing and bewildering to those on the Penn State side. Even still, the Lions got the last laugh.
Upon boarding the bus and walking toward his seat in the back, Kowal's teammates yelled things like "where are you going, your seat is up front" and "what's wrong, you left your keys in the back?"
With a 27-3 regular season record, the Lions have much reason to laugh. That gives Penn State its most regular season wins since 1982, when a good portion of the schedule consisted of Canadian schools.
