You gotta love the playoffs.
You win, you stay. You lose, you go home with an off-season full of "what if's?" and "what went wrong's?"
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[ Friday, April 28, 2006 ]
Lions take first step to tournament title
By Stefen Lovelace
Collegian Staff Writer
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Penn State
3 Rutgers 0 |
And the No. 11 Penn State men's volleyball team (19-8, 11-1 EIVA) finds itself in an even stranger situation. If it loses and goes home, they'll be forced to watch the NCAA championships at their own house: Rec Hall.
Last night they took one step up the playoff ladder, dispatching their first postseason opponent in the EIVA conference tournament semifinal in Rutgers-Newark (10-20, 5-7 EIVA) in a three match sweep, [30-17, 30-19, 30-22].
Last night's defeat of the Scarlet Raiders can be described with just one fatal word: dominance.
"We wanted to make sure we proved a point and dominated," senior co-captain Nate Meerstein said. "We converted and played pretty strong tonight."
Even with the strong performance, the team was quick to point out problems that it'll need to address before Saturday night's championship.
"In each of the three games, we let Rutgers get on a three or four point run. We can't let any teams get on a three or four point run," senior setter Dan O'Dell said. "We played well for most of the game, but we still can't let up."
In an earlier match, St. Francis (16-9, 8-4 EIVA) upset No. 12 George Mason (22-5, 11-1 EIVA) so it'll meet the Nittany Lions in tomorrow night's final at 7.
PHOTO: Shawn Miller
Penn State volleyball player Dan O'Dell (2) sets up Max Holt (12) for a kill shot during the Lions' 3-0 sweep against Rutgers-Newark in the semifinals of the EIVA Tournament last night at Rec Hall.
The winner of that match wins the postseason conference title and gets an automatic bid into the NCAA championship.
If they get the kind of production that they got last night, you can save the Nittany Lions' seat for the NCAA championships.
Senior co-captain Matt Proper was his usual unstoppable self, tallying 11 kills on a .474 clip with six blocks. Freshman Max Holt, in his first collegiate playoff game ever, tallied seven kills and eight blocks.
Penn State hit an eye opening .467 as a team while holding the Scarlet Raiders to a depressing .051.
But St. Francis surely won't roll over that easily.
It boasts one of the best middle hitters in the country in Marc Honore. He ranks third in the nation in hitting percentage with .489 and in blocks per game with 1.67.
He put his team on his back against George Mason, tallying 29 kills on 41 swings for a .610 clip.
His play hasn't gone unnoticed by Penn State.
"You don't stop Marc Honore," head coach Mark Pavlik said. "You can't give him 41 swings, you got to serve the ball tough, and you can't miss serves when he's in the front row."
So, who will keep playing into May, and who'll get an early vacation?
Stay tuned.
