March 2, 2015
By Tyler Feldman, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Thanks to the veteran leadership of outside hitter Aaron Russell and opposite Nick Goodell, the Nittany Lions (6-9, 4-0 EIVA) earned their first two conference road wins of the season over the weekend at Sacred Heart and Harvard.
After a long bus trip from University Park to Sacred Heart, the Blue and White defeated the Pioneers (4-8, 1-4 EIVA) Friday night in straight sets (25-16, 25-11, 25-21). Then the team continued their journey to Cambridge where the Nittany Lions topped Harvard (9-5, 3-2) in four sets (21-25, 25-14, 25-23, 25-22) in a heated match Saturday evening.
"Hopefully it's the first two of many," said Goodell. "It feels good finally to see the hard work pay off."
Being on the road is not as easy as it looks. It is imperative to maintain a certain standard of balance. For Penn State men's volleyball, the preparation for an extended trip away from Rec Hall starts at the beginning of the week.
"Earlier in the week we tell them what the deal is," said Russell on mentoring the underclassmen. "For this trip, we know it's a long bus ride, tough gyms to play in and Harvard is a good team, so we just lay that out first and foremost. I just tell them how to cope with such a long trip: sleep when you can, take naps, get as much sleep at night whenever you can, and try to make yourself feel at home as possible."
According to head coach Mark Pavlik, the success that his program has achieved over the course of his 21-year regime is why his team is always ready for the road.
"It's become such an ingrained expectation with this program that we will be on long road trips," said Pavlik. "It's now the day-to-day grind. You talk about recovery. You talk about sleep. You talk about taking care of classes and making sure you spend your time wisely at those things so you can recover and get ready for the next trip."
A scheduled itinerary helps keep the team on the same page. From when breakfast is, to serve and pass, to the scouting report and film session, all the way to the pregame meal, an organized plan maintains order.
More importantly, the close quarters on the bus allows the team to come together and build a tightknit rapport.
"Cooped up with your teammates in a relatively small space on the bus, because we are so tall, we just use it to our advantage," said Russell. "We get to know each other better and are able to build team chemistry. We're having fun, and we're building relationships, too."
After both wins this weekend, the Nittany Lions stand alone atop the EIVA standings, a conference that the Blue and White has dominated over the years.
Penn State rolled past the Pioneers on Friday night. Eleven kills apiece from Russell and Chris Nugent and six digs from Connor Curry and Russell led the charge. The Blue and White hitting percentage was .403, while the Lions held Sacred Heart to just .125.
Saturday was a different story, as the Nittany Lions went into the match against Harvard knowing it would be a war. Goodell took charge though, compiling a match-high 25 kills to pace Penn State. Curry added 12 more digs to keep Penn State on its toes defensively.
According to Pavlik, his team's level-headedness led to this past weekend's stellar play.
"Level-headed is very accurate because it seemed like on Friday night Sacred Heart just folded the tents, but we didn't let up," said Pavlik. "We didn't follow their lead and say `well, if they don't want to play, we're not going to play hard.' We kept playing hard. [Against Harvard], we hit that stretch at the end of game one where we made a couple of errors, let it get away from us, but we didn't change mentality, and we played hard through the rest of the match. It just seemed like we outplayed Harvard from about 17 or 18 on for the next three games. We had a very purposeful mindset. Nobody was getting upset at getting punched back in the nose from a good team. That's a good thing to see. We maximized some of our strengths with our serving, and we were pretty efficient with our attacking. More than anything else, we are still on an upward climb with this journey of a season. We will see where we wind up in the next couple of weeks."
Upcoming for Penn State is a bye week. The next EIVA conference match will not be played until March 27 at home against Princeton. During spring break, the Nittany Lions will be headed to the west coast for a few matches, starting with USC on Tuesday, March 10.
"We're proving that we are getting better," said Pavlik. "A season is simply an evolution of change where you hope, at the end of the year when everything matters; your change has been one of maximization and efficiency."