Waiting in line for blocking drills, members of the Penn State men's volleyball team fill the South Gym at Rec Hall with chatter.
Matt Anderson discusses passing techniques with Luke Murray, demonstrating his points while the setter listens. Meanwhile, Jon Sherrick leans over and talks with Alan Mars just before the two step up to the net for their turns. In the back of the line, Edgardo Gonzalez and Ryan Sweitzer share a laugh.
"There's a genuine friendship between all 17 guys out here," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "In the sense of a team, all these guys care about each other."
The No. 1 Nittany Lions spend much of their time off the court together, and the bonding that goes on in their apartments and around State College has produced a team of close friends. Thanks to their off-court activities, a sense of unity has been created from the superstars to the redshirts.
Unlike in previous years, everyone on the team lives on the western side of campus. The upperclassmen make themselves available to the freshmen residing in West Halls by rooming together in apartments nearby. Their proximity to the younger players made getting to know one another easier.
"We put out the effort to make the freshmen a part of the team," Murray said. "It's our duty as upperclassmen and as good teammates."
At their apartments on West College and West Beaver avenues, the team leaders host a wide array of bonding activities. Whether it's watching the Penn State football team during their volleyball offseason, going out for pizza late at night or jamming out to Rock Band, the Lions uses these experiences to get comfortable with each other.
This type of attachment was absent during Sherrick's time at St. Francis (Pa.) -- before he transferred to Penn State two years ago. Sherrick said during his freshman year playing for the Red Flash, the seniors and underclassmen spent little time together off the court, creating a rift between the two generations.
"At high school, we were really successful with guys like Luke and Jay [Stauffer] leading us," Sherrick said. "In my one year at St. Francis, the older players didn't spend as much time with us. There wasn't that sense of team."
Team captain Travis Foltz said Penn State has always had a good chemistry, but that feeling has never been as strong as it is now, from the all-conference athletes like Anderson and Max Holt, to the redshirt freshmen like Gonzalez and Joe Sunder.
"This year, all the guys up and down the roster are united in one goal," Foltz said. "Before, it wasn't bad, but there's usually a couple of guys that aren't here for the good of the whole team. Everybody on the court and on the bench wholeheartedly wants to win a national championship."
Foltz and Sherrick both point to the team's bowling the night before their early-morning flight to California during spring break. With most of the campus empty, the entire team spent the evening on one of the lanes in State College, laughing at a few teammates' subpar games. Sherrick said it exemplified the team's typical social festivities, saying, "It's just something regular college kids would do."
Spending time together led to improvements in team communication. If freshman Dennis Del Valle sees something wrong with the way Stauffer, a team captain, receives a kill attempt, Sherrick said he can let him know without feeling as if he's breaking the chain of seniority.
"Our success this year is a result of our chemistry," Murray said. "If somebody's not working hard, someone will come up and say, 'You've got to fix this.' The way we criticize each other constructively has led to our improvement over the course of this year."
