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April 11, 2015
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 7 Penn State men's volleyball (15-9, 9-0) clinched its 31st EIVA/ECVL regular season title with a 3-1 (25-15, 20-25, 25-17, 25-18) win against Sacred Heart (12-11, 3-7) Saturday afternoon on senior day at Rec Hall. With the victory, the Nittany Lions have now won their last 11 consecutive matches.
The win also gives PSU home court advantage as the No. 1 seed in the upcoming EIVA Championship tournament, set to take place April 29-May 1.
Redshirt senior Nick Goodell powered the Penn State offense with 14 kills on .357 hitting, adding six blocks, four digs and two aces. He earned Mike Anderson Penn State Player of the Match honors for his performance. Senior Aaron Russell and sophomore Chris Nugent followed with eight kills each.
Penn State out-blocked the Pioneers 20.5-3.0, led by a total of seven multi-block performances. Redshirt junior Matt Callaway led the way with a career-high 11 total blocks, including one solo stuff.
Redshirt senior Connor Curry rounded out the defense with seven digs.
Penn State came out firing, using a 6-2 run to open the match. The Pioneers cut off the early momentum with a 5-3 streak to narrow the margin to two, 9-7. PSU quickly regrouped with a 6-2 stretch, capped off by consecutive kills from Goodell and Nugent to bolster the lead to as many as six, 15-9.
Sacred Heart looked to put an end to the rhythm with a kill, 15-10, but back-to-back stuffs from Hammond and Callaway and Russell and Callaway opened a 9-2 run that vaulted the Nittany Lions to set point, 24-12. The Pioneers fought off three consecutive set point attempts before Goodell put away a kill to secure a 25-15 win in favor of the Nittany Lions.
Six different Nittany Lions had at least one block in the first frame, led by a total of five from Callaway.
Trailing by two in set two, 7-5, Pen State put together a 4-2 stretch to tie the score, 9-9. The Pioneers answered with a pair of kills to pull ahead by two, 11-9, but PSU battled back with a 3-2 strike to arrive within one, 13-12. Sacred Heart answered with another pair of kills to move ahead 15-12, prompting Penn State to call a timeout.
The Nittany Lions came out of the break with a 5-3 run featuring two kills from Goodell to shave the deficit to one, 18-17. With PSU unable to sustain the momentum, the Pioneers followed with a 6-2 streak to make it set point for SHU, 24-19. A solo stuff from Russell held off the attempt, but another Sacred Heart kill handed the Pioneers a 25-20 win in the second set to tie the match, 1-1.
Penn State and Sacred Heart kept it close in the opening portion of the third set. With the score knotted, 12-12, Goodell and Penrose sparked a 6-1 run with two consecutive kills to bring the Nittany Lions ahead 17-13, causing the Pioneers to call a timeout. The Pioneers used a 3-2 stretch out of the break to trim the PSU advantage back to three, 19-16, Penrose and Russell put away two consecutive kills to keep the Nittany Lions on top, 21-16.
The Pioneers looked to get back on track with a kill, 22-17, but PSU scored the next three in a row capped off by an ace from Zack Parik to lock up a 25-17 win in the third set.
The Nittany Lions jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the fourth stanza, capped off by a string of four unanswered points. The Pioneers interrupted the momentum with a 3-1 strike to shave the PSU lead to three, 12-9. Russell opened up a 4-3 stretch to keep Penn State on top by five, 15-10. Rallying, the Pioneers answered with a 4-1 run to pull within two, 16-14.
An SHU service error and a kill from Goodell gave the Nittany Lions a four-point cushion, 18-14, but the Pioneers responded with a 4-2 stretch to remain within two, 20-18. Penn State cut off the streak, using a 5-0 run, featuring two blocks from Goodell to close out a 25-18 win in the fourth set to win the match.
Penn State hits the road next week, traveling to Princeton and NJIT for two of the final three EIVA conference matches of the regular season. The Nittany Lions take on Princeton Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m. before squaring off against NJIT Saturday, April 18 at 4 p.m.