UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania – The Penn State men's volleyball team got back into the win column to snap a four-game skid with a sound three-set sweep of EIVA foe Harvard Friday evening in Rec Hall's South Gym.
The win marks the second in EIVA play for the Nittany Lions (5-6, 2-0). Harvard drops to 1-7 and 1-1 in the EIVA.
Penn State was led in scoring by the trio of Jason Donorovich, Matthew McLaren, and Brett Wildman who each had double-digit kills and combined for 36.
Luke Braswell had 35 assists in his first start since Jan. 18 against BYU for the Nittany Lions.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Set
- The first set was tightly contested as indicated by its 16 tied scores and four lead changes.
- A kill by Henrik Falck Lauten gave the Nittany Lions an 8-6 edge, but Harvard fired back with two kills and PSU error to take a 9-8 lead.
- Neither team led by more than two points in the set until back-to-back errors by the Crimson put Penn State in front 23-20.
- After a Harvard timeout, the Crimson tacked on two more errors and allowed the Nittany Lions to take the first set by five.
- Penn State hit .414 in the set (15-2-29) and converted 16-of-21 sideout opportunities.
- Donorovich was error-free in the first set with five kills in five attacks.
- Set Score: Penn State 25, Harvard 20
- Match Score: Penn State leads 1-0
Second Set
- Harvard was the beneficiary of three-straight Nittany Lions errors to take a 7-3 edge early in the set.
- Penn State stormed back with eight of the next nine points, including a combined five kills from McLaren and Wildman.
- The Crimson wouldn't go away as Harvard retook the lead with a four-point spurt to lead 13-12.
- Wildman gave Penn State its largest lead at four points on his fourth kill of the set at 21-17, forcing Harvard to call timeout.
- A service ace from Donorovich and kills from Falck Lauten and Canyon Tuman allowed Penn State to close the set.
- McLaren and Wildman combined for 10 kills against four errors for a .353 hitting percentage in the set.
- Set Score: Penn State 25, Harvard 21
- Match Score: Penn State leads 2-0
Third Set
- Penn State dominated early in the third with the first five points of the set, four of which were kills by the Nittany Lions.
- The Nittany Lions never let its lead dip below four for the remainder of the set.
- PSU clinched the set on a five-point run on McLaren's service rotation and a couple of kills from Donorovich.
- Set Score: Penn State 25, Harvard 15
- Match Score: Penn State wins 3-0
HEAR IT FROM THEM
Head Coach Mark Pavlik
- "I thought tonight we did a really good job of our serving and passing, that was fairly evident. If you look at our attacking numbers, we were pretty much able to run our offense at will."
- "We had that first half of game two, where we started off with six unforced hitting errors, and then the ball that was blocked was clearly out of bounds until an inexperienced opposite hand down saved it for them. Once we righted the ship there, we were in great shape. We really had the advantage in physicality."
Jason Donorovich
- "I picked myself apart this week. I had possibly the worst weekend of my career [last week] and really wanted to use that going into this weekend. So this week in practice I just worked specific skills and hitting angles and just being ready to hit with more than one set of hands in front of me… I think it paid off, I was able to make some smarter swings."
GAME NOTES
- Donorovich set a new career high with 13 kills. Meanwhile, he swung .688 for the match with just two errors and 16 attacks.
- Wildman also set a new career high with 11 kills on 25 attacks, his first time in double digit kills in his freshman season.
- Braswell's 35 assists tied his season high set in game one of the year at Ohio State Jan. 5.
- Braswell also eclipsed the 2,000 career assist mark in the match, becoming one of ten current DI-II setters with at least 2,000 career assists.
- McLaren's 12 kills were the most since he had 16 on Jan. 18 vs. BYU. His .471 hitting percentage (12-4-17( was also his most efficient outing with double-digit kills this season.
- Penn State's .364 (45-15-88) hitting percentage was its highest since its sweep of North Greenville Jan. 12.
NEXT UP
- The Nittany Lions host another EIVA opponent tomorrow when they welcome Sacred Heart to the Rec Hall South Gym at 7 p.m.