| Matt Proper had 11 kills to lead the Nittany Lions over Rutgers-Newark. The team will face St. Francis on Saturday at Rec Hall. For more photos of the match, click here. |
Box Score
Photo Gallery
University Park, Pa., April 27, 2006 ?C The 11th-ranked Penn State men??s volleyball team advanced to its 11th Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) Championship title match with a three-game win over Rutgers-Newark Thursday night, 30-17, 30-19, 30-22. The Nittany Lion will face St. Francis, who upset No. 12 George Mason in four games (31-33, 30-26, 30-28, 30-27) in the first match of the evening. The EIVA Championship match is slated for Saturday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m. at Rec Hall and will be aired live on CSTV. The winner of the contest earns an automatic berth into the National Collegiate Championship, to be held May 4 and 6 at Rec Hall.
??We took advantage of a Rutgers-Newark squad that has had to make a lot of lineup changes lately for various reasons,?? said head coach Mark Pavlik. ??I liked that we were able to take advantage of the passing and run our middles. We played with a passion and I thought we played well in transition. It seemed like every time we dug a ball, we terminated it.??
Senior opposite Matt Proper (Guys Mills, Pa.) led Penn State with 11 kills on .474 hitting as senior outside hitter Kevin Wentzel (Pittsburgh, Pa.) collected eight kills. Senior middle hitter Nate Meerstein (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and freshman middle hitter Max Holt (Cincinnati, Ohio) both tallied seven kills, with Meerstein??s coming on 10 errorless attempts while hitting .700. Junior outside hitter Alex Gutor (Kiev, Ukraine) and freshman outside hitter Matt Anderson (West Seneca, N.Y.) each recorded six kills as Anderson connected on all six of his attacks. As a team, the Nittany Lions outhit the Scarlet Raiders, .467 to .051.
Senior setter Dan O??Dell (Rochester, N.Y.) directed the balanced offense with 39 assists as Wentzel led the defense with six digs, one shy of his season high. Junior libero Ryan Walthall (Irvine, Calif.) notched four digs in the contest as O??Dell added five.
Penn State won the blocking battle, 13.0 to 8.0. Holt led all players with a career-high-tying nine blocks as Proper tied his season high with six stuffs. O??Dell, Wentzel, Gutor and Meerstein all contributed two blocks. Gutor also set a new career high with three service aces as Wentzel set a season mark with two.
Danny McGowan led Rutgers-Newark with 11 kills and Eric Honsberger chipped in nine. Mark Hulse dished out 23 assists and Brian Honsberger led the blocking front with six blocks.
In the first EIVA semifinal match, Marc Honore led St. Francis with a school-record 29 kills on .610 hitting (29-4-41) as Jim Fazzini tallied 18 kills and Jonathan Sherrick and Cory Spencer posted 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Shane Conley dished out 69 assists as Zach Nanni led all players with 13 digs. Honore and Sherrick each collected three blocks.
For George Mason, EIVA Player of the Year Shaun Powell posed 26 kills on .309 hitting as Hudson Bates and Matt Steinfurth tallied 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Bryan Newcomb produced 50 assists as Newcomb and libero Graham Sheppard each tallied eight digs. Steinfurth led all players with nine blocks as Newcomb added six.
For box scores from both matches and for more information on the Penn State men??s volleyball team, the EIVA Championship and the National Collegiate Championship, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.