Penn State is coming off a difficult west coast road trip where it struggled to match up with the defending national champion Long Beach State on Friday night but followed up with yet another close loss to a top team, against sixth-ranked UC Santa Barbara.
This past weekend marked the fifth and sixth ranked teams that the Nittany Lions have played in their non-conference schedule. While head coach Mark Pavlik's team did not win any of those matches, in the 18 sets that Penn State has lost this season, the Nittany Lions have fallen short by four points or less in 12 of them. Despite their 4-6 record, the Nittany Lions have shown they can compete wire-to-wire with the top teams in the country and are playing with plenty of confidence heading into EIVA play this weekend.
"I think when any team in any sport knows that they're playing tough competition, and they have the feeling that they're right with them, then they just can't finish, I think there is the natural tendency to become frustrated. You can't let your frustration be the point of concentration. You've got to make sure that we take positives out of those things," Pavlik said.
The other good news for Penn State is star redshirt junior setter Luke Braswell returned to the lineup against UC Santa Barbara after being out with a concussion suffered against BYU back on Jan. 18.
While true freshman Cole Bogner proved to be an excellent backup and is expected to have a bright future in a Nittany Lion uniform, the experience Braswell brings to the table cannot be overlooked.
"(Braswell) has seen this movie before. He's another bigger guy at the left antenna for their left side hitters to deal with and sometimes Luke doesn't even have to touch a ball for us to have a better play on it because they're trying to move the ball around his block," Pavlik said.
As talented as Bogner is, only two teams have ever won a national championship in men's volleyball with a true freshman setter in the lineup.
"There is something to it that after all these years it takes somebody that is a little bit more experienced to get the team to the next level," Pavlik said. There's no doubt in my mind (Braswell) can do that, and there's no doubt in my mind (Bogner) is going to be able to do that."
Braswell and Bogner both have strikingly similar skillsets though and can be used almost interchangeably in the Penn State lineup. Having Bogner fill in seamlessly was advantageous for the elder setter since Braswell was cleared last Wednesday, but Bogner's presence allowed for Braswell to practice an extra day and regain his form.
"(Bogner) has done a great job all of preseason and spring season too," Braswell said. "(Pavlik) told us that we should be ready to play all the time when we're both healthy, so we can both bring something new and different and help the team win."
Braswell's return to the lineup comes at the perfect time since he not only has two years of experience playing in the EIVA, which Pavlik says continues to get tougher every season, but he also restores Penn State's most vocal leader to the lineup.
Braswell's energy and experience will be key for a Penn State team looking to turn things around during league play and recapture the EIVA title.
"We're right there with top teams," Braswell said. "Now all we need to do is figure out how to close and how to finish sets and play well consistently throughout the entire match and not just through one or two games in a match."