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| Rec Hall | University Park, Pa. | 506 |
April 21, 2016
Post-Game Notes
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- No. 9 Penn State dropped a heartbreaker to No. 15 Saint Francis (Pa.) (29-27, 26-28, 22-25, 23-25) in the semifinals of the EIVA championships Thursday night in Rec Hall.
"First of all I'd like to congratulate Saint Francis, coach Mike Rumbaugh, and the administration," said head coach Mark Pavlik. "They had a very good year came in here and beat us twice, played some pretty good volleyball, and they deserve to move on."
"I think tonight we came in wanting to slow down (Steven) Braswell, wanting to slow down (Jeff) Hogan and we did one out of the two and that wasn't good enough."
"We were still in it, we had chances, we needed one point in game to go up 2-0 and maybe that changes the timber of the match. We never got that side out, and we were in a dogfight from there on."
Trailing the Red Flash 6-7 early in the opening set, Jalen Penrose sparked the Nittany Lion offense with not one, not two, nor three, but four straight service aces to give Penn State a 10-7 lead over Saint Francis (Pa.).
Penn State extended their lead to four leading Saint Francis (Pa.) 12-8 before the Red Flash embarked on a 13-9 run to find themselves tied with Penn State at 21-21 off a Nittany Lion attack error that prompted a Penn State timeout.
Each team would tie the game on opposite possessions before Saint Francis (Pa.) and Penn State found themselves tied at 27-27 on a kill from the redshirt-senior team captain Matt Seifert, his seventh of the set.
Penn State earned the final two points needed to clinch the set by way of back-to-back blocks from Matt Seifert and Matt Callaway to take the set 29-27 and take a 1-0 lead heading into the second set.
Set two was eerily similar to the opening set as Penn State and Saint Francis (Pa.) kept each other within reach with neither team being able to string together a run of more than three-straight points before the opposing team worked their way back into the set.
With the set tied at 19 points apiece, Penn State strung together a 4-1 run to take a seemingly set sealing lead, up 23-20 over Saint Francis (Pa.).
Following a SFU timeout, the Red Flash responded with a run of their own to pull to within one of the Lion trailing Penn State 24-23 on a kill from Xavier Krause that lead to a Penn State timeout by coach Mark Pavlik.
Out of the timeout, a Nittany Lion attack error knotted the game at 24-24 with SFU up to serve.
A kill from Seifert followed by a kill from SFU's Mike Marshman saw the score sit at 25-25.
Following a Penn State timeout with the Red Flash leading 26-25, SFU would finish the second set with a kill and a service ace while allowing just one Nittany Lion kill to take the set by a score of 28-26 and even things up at 1-1 heading into the third set.
Trailing SFU late in the third set (19-15), Penn State fought their way back into the set to get within two points of the Red Flash 24-22.
A Stephen Braswell kill capped the set for Saint Francis (Pa.) who won the set 25-22 and took a 2-1 set lead.
For a fourth-straight set, Penn State and SFU found themselves tied late in the set as it was 23-23 following a Red Flash attack error.
A Nittany Lion attack error made it 24-23 in favor of SFU and a kill by Keith Marshman secured the set win and match win to send Saint Francis (Pa.) to their first EIVA championship game where they will face George Mason Saturday Apr. 23 at 7 p.m.
"(Inconsistency) that's the way it's been all year," said Pavlik. "The chance to end rallies before we gave enough opportunities for the other team to end it was one of the things that we really tried to address over the last two of the year. We could just never find the right combination to make it happen. It's probably the year that I will remember as the year of the lost side out."
"When you pour your heart and soul into obtaining excellence in anything you do, and the biggest matches and biggest opportunities that you want to take advantage of and you don't, it hurts. It hurts, but it should also serve as a motivator, really that the thing that going to be interesting. (the loss) is going to give me something that I've not had for 18 years to start the next season with and that starts tonight. So we'll take the disappointment and make sure that this program benefits from it."
Penn State finishes the 2016 season (19-10, 12-2) having clinched their 18th- consecutive EIVA regular season championship.
