Bag Policy - Parking
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March 20, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball (12-6, 7-1) is set to No. 13 UC-Irvine (7-13, 5-11) for the Nittany Lions third game in four days Monday night in Rec Hall with the first whistle set to blow at at 7 p.m. ET.
QUICK SETS
* Chris Nugent and Taylor Hammond have paced the offense so far this season pouring in 260 kills and 687 assist, respectively, while Royce Clemens and Matt Callaway have handled things on defense early on leading the team with 151 digs and 60 total blocks, respectively.
* Penn State currently leads the EIVA with an mark of 7-1 in league play following Friday's loss to Saint Francis (Pa.). Harvard occupies the No. 2 spot with their conference record of 5-2 in conference play, followed by Saint Francis at 5-3 and NJIT sporting a record of 4-3 on the season in EIVA play.
* Penn State is ranked in the top-25 in four different team categories including top-10 rankings in Blocks Per Set - 2.46 (8th), Kills Per Set - 13.46 (3rd), and Assists Per Set - 12.68 (3rd). Individually, Chris Nugent is ranked eighth in the nation in both Points Per Set (4.81) and Kills Per Set (4.20), while Matt Callaway is currently seventh in the nation in Blocks Per Set averaging 1.19. Taylor Hammond is third in the nation in Assists Per Set currently averaging 11.53.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE COMPETITION
Penn State trails 4-8 in the all-time series against the Anteaters of UC-Irvine. The Nittany Lions fell to UC-Irvine 3-2 in last seasons opener in the Outrigger Tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii on Jan. 8, 2015
For the Anteaters, Kyle Russell leads the offense with 234 kills on the season averaging 3.30 a set and hitting .222. The offense is run by Dante Chakravorti and Michael Saeta who have posted 529 and 267 assist, respectively. For the defense, David parker leads the team in digs (104) while Marty Ross and Jason Agopian are No. 1 and No. 2 on the team in total blocks recording 64 and 51, respectively.
AVCA DI-II COACHES' POLL UPDATE: WEEK 10
Penn State held steady at No. 6 in the latest AVCA Top 15 Coaches Poll. PSU has been in the top 15 the last six consecutive weeks since debuting at No. 10 in the AVCA DI-II pre-season poll. The Nittany Lions have now seen or will see a total of nine teams from the top 15 at some point during the regular season.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Penn State will wrap up its 11-game home stand with matches against Lewis on Friday Mar. 25 and Loyola on Saturday Mar. 26 with a first whistle slated for 7:00 p.m. both nights. The Penn State vs. Loyola match will broadcast on BTN.