April 19, 2018
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- After garnering All-EIVA for his performance on the court earlier in the week, redshirt-sophomore Calvin Mende (Redlands, Calif.) earned his second honor from the conference office when he earned a spot on the EIVA All-Academic Team for his work in the classroom.
In his third year on campus, the security and risk analysis major has compiled a 3.89 GPA, which is among the top-10 percent of the student-athletes (sophomore and above) that compete in the EIVA. Earning dean's list distinction all five semesters, his fall 2017 semester featured a perfect 4.00 GPA.
He becomes the seventh Nittany Lion to earn multiple EIVA All-Academic honors since 2001, joining Connor Curry, Travis Foltz, Zeljko Koljesar, Keith Kowal, Matt Proper and Ryan Wolf. To qualify, a student-athlete must be at least a sophomore, carry a 3.50 GPA or higher and have competed in at least 60% of the sets played by their team.
Earlier in the week, Mende became the 59th Penn Stater to earn multiple selections to the All-EIVA squad and 29th Nittany Lion to earn multiple berths to the All-EIVA first team. The redshirt-sophomore posted a team-best 3.15 kills per set in 65 sets, which ranked No. 6 in the EIVA.
His.302 attacking percentage was No. 5 in the EIVA among qualifying attackers, with 71 errors on 444 total attacks. He added 45 total blocks to rank No. 3 on the team and he also tallied 58 digs. Mende registered 11 matches with double-digit kills -- seven in EIVA play -- and boasted nine matches with three-or-more blocks.
Penn State will enter the EIVA Tournament as the No. 2 seed and face No. 3 seed Harvard in the first semifinal on Thursday, April 19. The Nittany Lions and Crimson are slated for a 5 p.m. first serve inside the Recreation Athletic Complex on the campus of George Mason University. For more information on the tournament, to buy tickets or find lodging click here.