| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | #6 Penn State
| 20 | 25 | 15 | 23 | 1 | | #1 Long Beach State | 25 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
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| Penn State Statistical Leaders | | • Kills: C. Nugent - 16 -.220 (16-7-41) | | • Blocks: T. Hammond- 3 | | • Digs: R. Clemens - 11 | | • Aces: None |
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| Stat Comparison | PSU | LBSU | | Kills | 53 | 55 | | Hitting Pct. | .206 | .355 | Assists
| 50 | 52 | | Aces | 0 | 7 | | Digs | 45 | 33 | Blocks
| 6.0 | 10.0 |
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March 5, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball (12-4, 7-0) dropped their final match of the weekend to No. 1 Long Beach State (17-2, 12-2) in four sets (20-25, 25-23, 15-25, 23-25) Saturday evening at Rec Hall.
"I love the way we competed," said head coach Mark Pavlik.
"The biggest difference was hitting errors, hitting errors, and the stretches that we gave them multiple points in a row. You can point to every game where there was a three or four point stretch where they either made a very good defensive play and converted and the next ball was an ace or a bad pass and the next ball was a hitting error, that's why we play this game and set up this type of match at this point in the year it gives us a great feel for `you can't get away with that against the teams that you want to play in April and May. I think we took a great step forward, I feel good about this it's a good learning step, now we just have to build on that."
Chris Nugent led the Nittany Lion offense with 16 kills on .220 hitting, adding five digs and one block. Aiden Albrecht finished second on the team with 15 kills hitting a team high .385, while also collecting seven digs to earn Mike Anderson Penn State Player of the Match honors for the second night in a row.
Kevin Gear finished the night with seven kills on .222 hitting in his first start of the season.
Setter Taylor Hammond recorded a solid effort with eight digs, 45 assist and four blocks in the match against No. 1 Long Beach State.
Penn State would win the second set, their lone set win of the night, 25-23 on a 5-3 run to end the set. Tied at 22 points apiece, Long Beach State committed an attack error forcing Coach Alan Knipe to call his second timeout of the set. Out of the LBSU timeout, Tj DeFalco knotted things up at 23-23 for a short second before a Kevin Gear kill from Taylor Hammond followed by an attack error from Long Beach state closed out the set.
"I think we played two really tough teams," said sophomore Opposite Aiden Albrecht.
"We can learn so many things from every play and everything that went right and went wrong. I think everyone is positive and showed that we can compete when we're doing what we do. Everyone is in a positive mind frame; we'll take this and get right back at it heading into next week."
Penn State will take a week off for spring break before welcoming Saint Francis (Pa.) and Ohio State to Rec Hall in games seven and eight of its 11-game home stand March 18th & 19th at 7 p.m.
