| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Final | #11 Penn State
| 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 | | Harvard | 23 | 18 | 17 | 0 |
|
| |
| Penn State Statistical Leaders | | - Kills: C. Nugent - 10 -.304 (10-3-23) | | - Blocks: M. Seifert- 4 | | - Digs: R. Clemens- 12 | | - Aces: Three Tied- 2 |
|
| Stat Comparison | PSU | HARV | | Kills | 37 | 27 | | Hitting Pct. | .256 | .152 | Assists
| 34 | 25 | | Aces | 7 | 1 | | Digs | 34 | 27 | Blocks
| 7.0 | 5.0 |
|
|
Post-Game Notes
April 8, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - No. 11 Penn State (17-8, 10-1 EIVA) took advantage of Harvard's miscues to sweep the Crimson (25-23, 25-18, 25-17) and sweep the season series against Harvard Friday night in Rec Hall improving to 13-1 all-time vs. Harvard.
"I felt as the match went on we found our rhythm," said head coach Mark Pavlik.
"I thought late in game two through game three I liked the way we were making contact with our serves. All of a sudden we had Harvard knocked off the net, and defensively they played right in to what we thought that they would be doing. Even though we only had seven blocks early on it caused them to change their rhythm and I don't think they ever went back to taking any big swings against us. We adapted to their off-speed type offense and got our transition game on track and started to pull away."
Taylor Hammond finished with 34 assist, two digs, and one block to earn Mike Anderson Penn State Player of the Match honors for the first time this season.
Chris Nugent (Fair Lawn, N.J.) finished the night with a match-high 10 kills on 23 attempts hitting .304 for Penn State adding eight digs and two service aces.
Matt Seifert (Reading, Pa.) added nine kills and five blocks ending the match with a .438 hitting percentage.
Jalen Penrose came off the bench to add six kills, two digs and two blocks of his own.
Tied at 23-23 late in the first set, the Nittany Lions used back-to-back kills from Nugent to end the set and take a 1-0 lead as the team's switched benches.
The second set mirrored the first set as teams traded points over the course of the set to find themselves tied at 15-15 before Penn State embarked on a 10-3 run to close out the set and go up 2-0.
The Nittany Lions got out to a 7-1 lead to open set three but the Crimson battled back to make it 14-11 in favor of Penn State off a Nittany Lion attack error. The three point deficit was as close as Harvard would get in the set; Penn State once again used a big run, this time capping the set and game on an 11-6 run punctuated with a kill from Seifert by way of Taylor Hammond.
Penn State finished the game with a team hitting percentage of .256 totaling 37 kills for the match while adding seven team blocks.
With a win tomorrow night, Penn State would clinch the EIVA regular season title for the 18th-consecutive season.
Penn State welcomes Sacred Heart to Rec Heart tomorrow Saturday Apr. 9 at 7 p.m.
Tomorrow's match will be Senior Night where the senior members of the team will be recognized for their contributions to the program over their careers in the blue & white.
