April 6, 2015
By Tyler Feldman, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - With lots of family in attendance, senior outside hitter Aaron Russell tallied 15 kills on a .700 hitting mark to lead No. 7 Penn State (13-9, 7-0 EIVA) to a straight sets road victory (25-19, 25-22, 25-13) over conference foe George Mason (9-11, 4-4 EIVA) in Fairfax, Virginia, on Saturday night.
Redshirt junior setter Taylor Hammond dished out 38 assists to lead the Nittany Lions in transition and help orchestrate the Blue and White's offense attack en route to their ninth straight win.
"Nice three-game win down here in Fairfax," head coach Mark Pavlik said. "It's always a tough place to play. I thought we did a really nice job with our pass and serve game. Our offense, Taylor did an outstanding job."
In set one, Penn State utilized a balanced offensive pursuit to keep George Mason out of system. Russell, Chris Nugent and Jalen Penrose accumulated four kills apiece to open up gaps within the Patriots defense. Add in two service aces from Russell and the Green and Gold did not have a chance.
"Well, and you got to couple that with the way we're serving and making it tough on them to side out and making it tough on the opponent to hit for high numbers," Pavlik said. "That's what gives us separation."
Russell, Nugent and Penrose all carried their rhythms from the first game into the second frame, as the three hitters combined for 14 kills in the middle set. Plus, the Nittany Lions stayed in system in the second game, siding out at 81 percent.
"We went into this match saying, hey we have to win the transition game because we were going to get some opportunities," Pavlik said. "Taylor ran the transition game very, very well. At this point in the year you like to see those stages of the game complementing themselves. I think our serving and passing is starting to really complement our offense."
In the final game, the Nittany Lions played like they wanted to get on the bus and get back to University Park as quickly as possible. Russell killed six swings on six attempts to lead the way in the third set for Penn State. The Blue and White also sided out at 78 percent to maintain a strong transition game.
"At one point Jay [Hosack] leaned over to me in game three saying on first swing side out we were hitting .470 and in transition we were hitting .420, so Taylor was doing an outstanding job," Pavlik said.
Senior libero Connor Curry added seven digs throughout the match, while middle hitter Matt Seifert converted four kills on five attempts and middle hitter Matt Callaway pushed five kills on just seven tries.
A nice contingency of Penn State fans cheered on the team inside the RAC to make the road match at George Mason feel like a home one at Rec Hall.
"It's always a great crowd here," Pavlik said. "The Penn State Maryland and Penn State D.C. area always comes out to support us really well. It's a tough place to play, but with the people in here there's a little bit of Rec Hall with us."
The team returns home to Rec Hall next Friday and Saturday to play in two EIVA conference matches against Harvard and Sacred Heart.