As freshman Tor Covello took his place on the court in Rec Hall Friday night, the butterflies in his stomach started to flutter.
Covello took his place along the net as 1,726 sets of eyes followed his every movement.
The ball went into play and the Crimson started to run their offense. As Harvard prepared to fire a kill over the net, Covello leapt high into the air and jammed the ball back as the Nittany Lion faithful cheered in approval and Covello's butterflies dissipated.
"It was an overpass and I just stuffed the middle," Covello said. "I really didn't realize what happened at first until I saw it land on their side. It was really good, it calmed me down and everyone on the side was celebrating and having fun. It was good."
Following the match, Covello said coach Mark Pavlik approached him afterward and told him he liked how Covello maintained his composure despite being under the bright spotlight of his first collegiate action and that these words of encouragement have boosted his confidence.
His performance Friday night was just one of the highlights of Penn State's 3-0 obliteration of Harvard, in which all 17 Lions saw action.
"When you have the opportunity to get guys in, I think you want to get them in," Pavlik said. "They work just as hard as anyone else in practice. So we get an opportunity where we think they can help us and we can give them a shot in the arm and get some competitive confidence instilled in them, you take that opportunity and Harvard presented that opportunity and the guys took full advantage of it. I think they all looked pretty good when they were out there."
While the young guys were on the court, Pavlik mixed in some of the starters like junior Max Lipsitz with the group, and Lipsitz feels the future of Penn State volleyball stepped up to meet the challenge.
With the starters on the bench for most of the third set, the Lions still walked away with a 30-20 victory, only a seven-point difference from the previous two sets.
"I felt pretty comfortable out there," Lipsitz said.
"I think they came in and everyone passed really well. I think we had good serves and it made it pretty easy for our offense to take its shape."
Covello said after he and fellow true freshmen Mark Shipp and Ryan Wolf came to Penn State, it took time to adjust to the speed of the game out of high school.
Covello also said the second unit's main goal is to keep the practice gym's quality of play at a high level and help make the starters better each day.
But that doesn't mean Covello and the second unit aren't already looking forward to their next taste of in-match action.
"Once you get out there you want to get another taste of playing at the collegiate level," Covello said. "It's really great to play against these guys in the practice gym, but it's even better to try and help the team during a real match."
