UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania – The Penn State men's volleyball team put itself back in the win column with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-23) sweep of long-time rival Ohio State Tuesday night at Rec Hall.
The win stops a four-game slide for the Nittany Lions (9-12) as they gear up for the second half of their conference schedule in the EIVA.
Ohio State falls to 7-15 with the loss.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn State had a solid offensive showing in the first set that allowed them to take the opening frame. The Nittany Lions swung .522 (14-2-23) and had three different players register at least three kills without an error. Henrik Falck Lauten and Matt McLaren led the way with four kills each.
The Buckeyes did manage to keep the set close until the 17-17 mark. Penn State scored eight of the next 11 points to win the set with kills by Brett Wildman and Falck Lauten highlighting the run.
The second set saw four lead changes and ten ties that all came before a 12-12 score in the set. From there, Penn State controlled play by quickly scoring three in a row thanks to a Falck Lauten kill and a Bogner service ace.
Later in the second, a Matthew McLaren swing gave Penn State a six-point edge at 20-14 and caused Ohio State to call timeout. Penn State built its lead to as high as seven, the same margin they finished the set by at 25-18.
Penn State had an evenly-distributed attack in the second set with six different players registering kills. Penn State also had five service aces in the frame, including two each by Wildman and Donorovich.
The third set was an even closer battle than the first two with four lead changes and 15 ties throughout the frame. Ohio State managed four points in a row to lead 8-5 early only to see the Nittany Lions strike back with a three-point run of their own capped with another Donorovich serving ace to tie the set 11-11.
After a kill by Ohio State's Jake Hanes gave the Buckeyes a 20-19 edge, Penn State called timeout to regroup. A point by McLaren allowed the Nittany Lions to regain the lead 22-21 and that would be all they needed as the Buckeyes committed three errors to give Penn State its match-clinching points.
HEAR IT FROM THEM
Head Coach Mark Pavlik
Opening Statement
"It's nice to finally get back into the winning column. I told Jason [Donorovich] walking over here, 'I really didn't care who's on the other side of the net tonight.' I really like the feel, the focus, and the competitive spirit that we had on our side of the net. It was really interesting because we were 21-21 and I wanted to see what these guys were going to do because we've had some issues with that over the past six or so matches. It was nice to see them just put their foot down and say, 'Okay let's close this out now.' Hats off to our guys. I thought they did really well passing and serving was I thought the difference in the match. Offensively, hit .315 and had some great swings. Had side out percentages of 80, 83 and 79. Even with missed serves, our earned sideout percentage was pretty high, so that's pretty good way to get us catapulting into the last half of the EIVA in season."
Q: What about this matchup against Ohio State was different from your earlier matchup where you guys unfortunately lost that you guys were able to now come back and take the win?
A: "I think we have the young guys who are experienced now and they've been in a lot of different situations where they've been successful and they haven't been successful. We've had guys that it's not their first match of the year, so I think that was really the difference in say this much. The Buckeyes and the Nittany Lions have seemed to have a similar path this year with fighting injuries and trying to get people in and out of the lineup and trying to get some continuity with not just competitive lineups but practice every day to go through. We're just a different team and they're a different team right now."
Redshirt Junior Jason Donorovich
Q: What was the motivation for the team going into this game? How was it different from the last four games coming off a losing streak?
A: "It's Penn State versus Ohio State so that kind of gave us that little edge, but we've had a lot of frustration in the locker room because we know how good we can be and things aren't clicking every time. We have a meeting every Monday about what we want to work on and what we think we could focus on in matches. For instance, we wanted to talk about energy, competition, just always competing no matter what the score is, and finishing games out strong. I think we did that. I think we dominated. If we dominated any aspect of the game tonight it was the momentum and the energy. It didn't matter the score whether we were up four, five, or we were down two. I think we always were calm, collected, and we knew that if we executed on our side we were going to come out on top. I think I'm just really proud of our guys. We did what we wanted to do and I think it showed."
MIKE ANDERSON MAN OF THE MATCH
- Jason Donorovich had a solid offensive evening with a team-best 11.5 points and was one of four Nittany Lions with at least 10.0 points for the match. Donorovich finished with seven kills on 15 attacks with only one error (.400 hitting %) and tied a career best with four service aces.
STAT STANDOUTS
- Henrik Falck Lauten put together a stellar all-around effort and finished with 10 kills while hitting .500 (10-2-16) plus a team-best eight digs for the night with seven of those coming in the last set. He now has three-straight matches with double-digit kills and has reached 10 kills six times out of the last seven.
- Cole Bogner started at setter for the first time since Feb. 9 in California against UC Santa Barbara and finished the evening with 32 assists and five digs. He also had the set-clinching kill in the second set.
- Matthew McLaren tied Falck Lauten with ten kills for the match while hitting .333 (10-4-18). Four of McLaren's kills came in the third set, including two kills that gave Penn State the lead after both teams were tied.
- Penn State now leads the all-time series with the Buckeyes 73-36-1. This marked the first time the Nittany Lions have beaten Ohio State since March 28, 2017. Penn State knocked off the top-ranked Buckeyes in five sets that match.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions will have another Tuesday matchup next week, March 26 at Rec Hall against EIVA-foe Saint Francis. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.