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Feb. 6, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Continuing the trend that was set forth by former Nittany Lions who have come through the Penn State men's volleyball program, No. 8 Penn State extended the all-time series lead against Mount Olive to 9-0 following a straight set sweep of the Trojans (25-16, 25-22, 25-20) in Rec Hall Saturday Night.
"I thought this was one of those matches where we could have dropped off performance wise," said Coach Mark Pavlik. "I think what we did in set one and two set the tone, I don't think Mount Olive thought we could win no matter how many points we gave them"
Penn State has not only never lost to Mount Olive since the series began in 2005, but the Nittany Lions have never lost a set to the Trojans over that span winning 27 consecutive sets against the Trojans following Saturdays game.
Spencer Sauter would lead the Nittany Lion offense with 10 kills on 18 attempts hitting .444 on the night. Matt Callaway would add in five kills of his own hitting .500 while dishing out 4.5 blocks as well.
Taylor Hammond and Zach Parik would split time at the setter position as Hammond would total 18 assist on the night with an additional 13 coming from Parik.
Penn State would hit .437 as a team landing 38 kills and finishing the night with four hitters over .500 against the Trojans.
Penn State would down the Trojans in the first set 25-16 on a 15-8 run after Mount Olive pulled the game to within two, trailing 10-8, on a service ace from Hugo van Garderen.
Mount Olive would show life in the second set, never trailing by more than three and keeping it close the entire way. Trailing 14-11, coach Pavlik would call a time out setting up a 6-3 run by the Nittany Lions to tie things up at 17-17.
Penn State would add two more points before Mount Olive, down by two (19-17) would call a timeout of their own. Mount Olive would get to within one of PSU (21-20) but could not stop the bleeding as Penn State would close out the set on a 4-2 run to push the game to a third and deciding set for Mount Olive.
Penn State closed out the match with a 20-20 set win over the Trojans to extend the all-time series to 9-0, with the Nittany Lions having never dropped a set to UMO over the 11-year series history.
"They're a young program, but Coach David Heller is going to do a great job with them, it's going to be sooner rather than later that I don't know if we can use the word `dominate' anymore."