Oct. 19, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's volleyball team moved to 2-0 in its fall tournament with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-10, 25-22) sweep against Monterey Tech Friday evening at Rec Hall.
Sophomore Spencer Sauter led the offense with six kills, while freshman Chris Nugent and junior Aaron Russell followed closely behind with five kills each. Redshirt junior Nick Goodell and sophomore Andrew Roberts also notched four kills apiece, while redshirt sophomore Matt Seifert led the squad with three total blocks, including one solo stop.
As a team, Penn State hit .397, while holding the Borregos to a .100 combined hitting clip. The Nittany Lions also held Monterey Tech to less than .060 hitting in both the first and second sets.
Penn State jumped out to a 10-4 lead early in set one, forcing Monterey Tech to call a timeout. Following the break, PSU continued to power forward, taking a double-digit lead, 20-10, helped out by kills from Russell, Goodell, Seifert and senior Peter Russell.
The Borregos used up their second timeout of the frame, but couldn't put together a plan to stop the Nittany Lion offense as Penn State cruised to a 25-15 win in the first set.
Delivering a balanced attack, Penn State opened the second set on a 13-4 run, featuring a trio of 3-0 streaks. After trading service errors, 14-5, PSU constructed a 5-0 run, featuring back-to-back aces from Nugent, to go up by as many as 12, 18-6. From there, the Nittany Lions didn't look back, surrendering only four more points on the way to a 25-10 victory in set two.
After holding on to the lead for much of the opening part of the frame, Penn State found itself trailing 13-9, following a 4-0 streak by Monterey Tech. Kyle Gregan connected on a kill to halt the attack, before a Borrego attack error moved the Nittany Lions within four, 14-10.
Still trailing, PSU managed to knot the frame, 20-20, after an ace from Roberts and an attack error on Monterey Tech. Pulling ahead, Nugent and Gregan combined for a kill and an ace to give Penn State a 23-21 edge. From there, PSU tallied two more quick points to seal a 25-22 win in the set to complete the sweep.
Penn State returns to action tomorrow afternoon, concluding its fall tournament with a match against Dalhousie at 4:30 p.m. in Rec Hall.