Feb. 21, 2016
By Zach Reagan, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" The weekend didn't start as planned for the No. 7 Nittany Lions men's volleyball (10-2, 5-0 EIVA), but the team overcame early adversity to close out the weekend with victories over NJIT and Princeton.
Penn State showed perseverance by battling from behind on Friday after dropping its first set to NJIT 25-21 in Rec Hall. Head coach Mark Pavlik's unit clawed back from a one-set deficit by taking the following three sets 25-21, 25-20, and 25-22.
On Saturday, Penn State fed off of the high energy within Rec Hall's South Gym to sweep Princeton (2-7, 2-2) in straight sets (25-20, 25-20, 25-20).
"In South (Gym), they (the fans) fill the stands and one big play happens and everyone is just ignited," said redshirt-junior Matt Callaway.
Energy from the crowd and team sparked Callaway, who was game-changing on Penn State's lengthy front line. Six of Penn State's 15.5 blocks came from the 6-foot-7-inch middle hitter. The presence of the front line also caused the Tigers to commit 23 hitting errors.
Junior Chris Nugent and redshirt sophomore Aidan Albrecht led Penn State with double-digit kills, 12 and 10 respectively. Five hard earned digs from redshirt-freshman Royce Clemens and 33 assists from redshirt-senior Taylor Hammond set the Nittany Lion offense up for kills.
The Nittany Lions made defensive adjustments against tipping in the Princeton match. Instead of points being scored off of the tips on Penn State, the Nittany Lions took advantage of tips to score them on the other side of the net.
"I thought our offense took very good swings, we just kept coming at them. I think our defense was very physical and they tried to off-speed us early just like NJIT tried to do on Friday. I don't think there was a tip that fell," said Pavlik.
During Friday's match, NJIT (0-9, 0-1) played at a higher level than their record showed and Penn State knew that they would be in for a challenge when they were scouting them.
"Tonight was a fight that I expected coming in," said Pavlik.
The outside hitter Nugent recorded a team-leading 18 kills against the Highlanders. Hammond, the setter recorded a match-high 55 assists and the libero Clemens dug out a match-high 11 balls.
The Highlanders used tipping instead of a bunch of full swings deceive the Nittany Lions. NJIT was led by Jabarry Goodridge, who is a member of the Barbados National team and TJ Jurko, one of the better players in the EIVA. Goodridge and Jurko each had 16 kills. NJIT's Luke Robbe also hit at a remarkable .909 clip.
"I thought both teams played well in bits and spurts but it seemed like he who streaked last won. When you get into matches like that it's even more important to take care of the ball on your side of the net. I think late in games we did a good job of not giving them the easy points," said Pavlik.
Penn State is back in action next weekend, continuing an 11-game home stand. The Nittany Lions host Charleston (W.V.) Friday and George Mason Saturday with each game starting at 7 p.m.