April 27, 2014
Tickets I Interactive Bracket I 2014 NCAA Championship Central
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 12 Penn State men's volleyball (24-6) has earned the No. 5 seed heading into NCAA post season play, as announced by the organization this morning. The Nittany Lions pushed past Princeton in straight sets to capture their 16th consecutive EIVA crown Saturday, April 26 to earn an automatic berth to NCAA post season play.
Penn State is slated to play fourth-seeded Lewis (23-7) in the second round of the two-match play-in game series Tuesday, April 29 Chicago at Gentile Arena. The winner will square off against top-ranked tournament host Loyola Chicago in the NCAA national semifinals Thursday, May 1.
The first play-in match features No. 3 seed Stanford (22-8) against No. 6 seed Erskine (21-6), with the winner advancing to the NCAA national semifinals to play No. 2 seed BYU. Both semifinal matches will stream live via NCAA.com. Fans can also listen live to Penn State's play-in match on NewsRadio 103.1 FM.
The winners of both semifinal matches will advance to the NCAA national finals Saturday, May 3 at 8 p.m. ET in Gentile Arena. The matchup will air live on ESPNU. For more information on the 2014 NCAA men's volleyball national championship, please click here.
"Our match with them [Lewis] at their place was one that was like a heavy weight fight. It was as physical as any match we'd played all year long and there's no doubt they are going to have a lot of people in the crowd," said head coach Mark Pavlik. "This is essentially a home game for them so we're going to have to weather some great storms that they are going to throw at us and we're going to have to maintain our physicality at the same time."
Penn State is 18-8 all-time against Lewis, having most recently captured a four-set victory on the road against the Flyers during the 2014 regular season. The two teams have never met in NCAA post season play before, despite being familiar regular season foes. Within the last 10 years, Penn State has compiled a 10-2 record against the Flyers in regular-season competition.
After putting together a 21-6 mark in the regular season, Lewis was recently knocked out of the MIVA Championship following a 3-1 loss to top-ranked Loyola Chicago in the tournament finals.
Penn State is coming off of its 26th EIVA Championship title in program history following a 3-0 win against Princeton (25-23, 25-19, 25-18). Redshirt junior Nick Goodell was named EIVA Championship Most Outstanding Player, while junior Aaron Russell joined him on the All-Tournament team squad.