| Kevin Wentzel was among the Nittany Lion seniors honored before Saturday's match. For more photos from Senior Night, click here. |
University Park, Pa., April 8, 2006 - The 11th-ranked Penn State men??s volleyball team defeated Lewis in three games (30-28, 30-24, 30-22) Saturday night to improve to 17-7 for the year. The Flyers fall to 10-16 on the season.
The match between the two teams can be seen on a tape-delay basis on College Sports Television (CSTV) on April 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET. Check your local listings for other air dates and times.
??I know on offense [for the rest of the year], we??re going to be fine,?? said head coach Mark Pavlik after the match. ??But we have to block some balls. This is a senior-laden group and they know what they need to do to keep playing.??
Senior opposite Matt Proper (Guys Mills, Pa.) led all players with 16 kills on .636 hitting as junior outside hitter Alex Gutor (Kiev, Ukraine) racked up 10 kills in two games of action. Seniors Kevin Wentzel (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Andrew Price (Gaithersburg, Md.) each tallied six kills, with Price??s coming on .625 hitting on eight swings. Senior middle hitter Nate Meerstein (Pittsburgh, Pa.) recorded five kills on an errorless 12 swings to hit .417 in the match. As a team, Penn State attacked at a .415 clip, including .516 in the third game alone.
Senior setter Dan O??Dell (Rochester, N.Y.) directed the offense for a majority of the match, collecting 37 assists and adding two kills. O??Dell and junior libero Ryan Walthall (Irvine, Calif.) each posted six digs to lead the squad as Proper and freshman middle hitter Max Holt (Cincinnati, Ohio) both tallied five digs and Wentzel added four.
Lewis came out on top of the blocking battle, 6.5 to 4.5. O??Dell led the Nittany Lions with three blocks and Meerstein recorded two as Gutor and Holt each tallied one.
Drew Pickering led the Flyers with 16 kills on .520 hitting as David Taylor dished out 30 assists in two games of action and Jordan Vidovic collected 13 assists in the third game. Pickering and libero Nick Perakes each collected six digs as Alex Vigansky topped the squad with four blocks.
Prior to the match, seniors Dan O??Dell, Matt Proper, Kevin Wentzel, Nate Meerstein, Andrew Price and manager Dong Kim were all recognized for their contributions to Penn State men??s volleyball.
Penn State takes to the road for the last weekend of regular-season action, facing IPFW on Friday, April 14 and Ball State on Saturday, April 15. The EIVA regular-season champion, the Nittany Lions earned a bye in the EIVA quarterfinals and will host the EIVA Championship, slated for Thursday and Saturday, April 27 and 29 at Rec Hall. The winner of the EIVA Championship earns a berth in the National Collegiate Championship, hosted by Penn State on Thursday and Saturday, May 4 and 6.
For more information on the Penn State men??s volleyball team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.