April 22, 2009
EIVA Championship Bracket in PDF Format
University Park, Pa. - Seven members of the sixth-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team (25-3) have earned nine postseason EIVA awards, league officials announced. Senior middle hitter Max Holt (Cincinnati, Ohio) was named the Uvaldo Acosta Player of the Year while redshirt freshman setter Edgardo Goas (San Juan, Puerto Rico) earned Newcomer of the Year. Head coach Mark Pavlik, last season's AVCA National Coach of the Year, earned 2009 EIVA Bob Sweeney Coach of the Year accolades.
Goas and Holt were also two of the seven Nittany Lion players named to the All-EIVA squads. Goas, Holt, junior middle hitter Max Lipsitz (Williamsville, N.Y.), junior outside hitter Will Price (Gaithersburg, Md.) and sophomore libero Dennis Del Valle (Toa Alta, Puerto Rico) all picked up First Team All-EIVA honors while senior opposite Ryan Sweitzer (Lancaster, Pa.) and redshirt freshman outside hitter Joe Sunder (Greensburg, Pa.) both earned Second Team All-EIVA.
The accolades push Penn State's number of all-time All-East selections to 165 since 1972 and Holt's Player of the Year distinction is the 11th for a Nittany Lion. Goas earns Penn State's fifth Newcomer of the Year recognition.
Holt earns his first Uvaldo Acosta Memorial Player of the Year honor and his fourth First Team All-EIVA award. He shattered the Penn State single-season service aces record, previously 55, as he heads into the conference playoffs with 70 aces for the year. Holt is also the career aces leader with 198. He ranks second on the squad with 1.06 blocks per game and leads the country with a .562 hitting percentage while also averaging 2.69 kills per game.
Goas picks up his first career First Team All-EIVA honor after leading the team to a nation-best .394 hitting percentage in his first season directing the team's offense. He is averaging 12.77 assists per game and has all five of his primary hitters averaging more than 2.50 kills per game. An all-around player, Goas is also averaging 1.25 digs per game and 0.80 blocks per game.
Lipsitz earns his third straight First Team All-EIVA honor after being named an AVCA Second Team All-American and an ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All-American a year ago. A member of the 2008 NCAA Championship team, Lipsitz is leading the 2009 Lion squad with 1.29 blocks per game while also providing 2.82 kills per game on .490 hitting, good for third in the country.
Price earns his first All-EIVA nod while at Penn State and the second of his career as he picked up First Team honors in 2007 as a redshirt freshman at George Mason. He ranks second on the team with 3.42 kills per game on .363 hitting and also ranks second on the team with 1.29 digs per game. Price was the EIVA Newcomer of the Year while with the Patriots.
Del Valle picks up his second consecutive First Team All-EIVA nod and was last season's EIVA Newcomer of the Year. A 2008 AVCA Second Team All-American, Del Valle leads the team and ranks fourth in the country with 3.15 digs per game. For the season, he stands with 287 total digs, just 11 away from surpassing Robert Pierce's all-time single-season digs school record of 297, which he set in 1988.
Sunder earns his first career All-EIVA honor as he is averaging 2.51 kills per game on .300 hitting. He has 22 aces for the season and ranks second on the team with 1.29 digs per game while also adding in 47 total blocks for the year.
Sweitzer picks up his second straight All-EIVA honor after leading the team with 3.48 kills per game on .328 hitting. He has produced 17 double-digit kill matches, including a career-high 27 at Long Beach State. Sweitzer also has 36 aces, 89 digs and 60 blocks for the season.
As the top seed in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association league playoffs, Penn State earned a bye in the quarterfinals and Rec Hall will once again host the EIVA Championship on Thursday and Saturday, April 30 and May 2. The winner earns the league's automatic berth in the NCAA National Collegiate Championships Semifinal, held on the campus of BYU on Thursday, May 7. The National Championship match will take place on Saturday, May 9.
For more information on the Penn State men's volleyball team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com. The Penn State men's volleyball 2009 season is presented by Rockvale Outlets and The Outlets At Hershey.