CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Penn State men's volleyball team extended its win streak to three games with an impressive four-set win on the road at Harvard Friday night.
Penn State (11-12) improves to 7-2 in the EIVA and sweeps both of its matches against Harvard in the 2019 regular season.
The Crimson (6-11) drops to 5-4 in conference play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Nittany Lions and Crimson traded point-for-point for the majority of the first set as neither team led by more than two for the first 40 combined points. Penn State did score four points out of five capped by a block from Henrik Falck Lauten and Canyon Tuman to lead 22-19.
Like last Tuesday's match against Saint Francis, the Nittany Lions turned to Matthew McLaren for its big points down the stretch. He had his fourth and fifth kills of the match to score Penn State's last two points of the frame.
In the second frame, Harvard took a 5-4 lead before Penn State scored six of the next eight points to lead 10-7. Resiliency from Harvard was the story of the set, however, as the Crimson scored three a row to tie the score 11-11.
Penn State went on a five-point run and seemed poised to take a 2-0 match lead, but the Crimson got a huge run with its back to the wall. Harvard scored five points in a row to thwart Penn State's lone set point and ended up winning the set in extra points.
The Nittany Lions came up with a gutsy response by starting strong in the third set and riding an early lead to the set win. Another five-point rally for the Nittany Lions with Calvin Mende serving (two aces) allowed Penn State to lead 10-7 and they wouldn't give up the lead for the rest of the set. Penn State hit .409 with three of its five service aces in the third.
The fourth set was close early before a three-point spurt by the Nittany Lions gave them a 13-10 lead and forced a Harvard timeout. Mende had a huge fourth set with nine kills. He also had an assist to McLaren to give PSU the 20-15 lead after McLaren kept a rally alive with a great effort just in front of the Penn State bench.
The Nittany Lions kept feeding McLaren and Mende down the stretch before Luke Braswell set up Tuman for match point. Penn State hit .577 (18-2-26) in the final set to close the match.
GAME NOTES
- Matthew McLaren set a new season high with 18 kills while swinging and even .500 (18-3-30). It was his fifth-straight match with 10 or more kills.
- Calvin Mende had another great match off the bench after picking up 14 kills with just one attacking error (.565, 14-1-23). He added two service aces.
- Luke Braswell had 30 assists and tied Will Bantle with a team-best four digs. Bantle and Cole Bogner (13 assists) rotated throughout the match.
- Jason Donorovich had six total blocks to pair with five kills.
- Penn State hit .412 (52-10-102), marking just the third time they've hit above .400 for a match and the first time doing it since March 2 against NJIT. The Nittany Lions are 3-0 with a 9-2 set count in those matches.
- The Nittany Lions are now in sole possession of second place in the EIVA behind only Princeton (9-1).
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions take their three-game win streak to Sacred Heart tomorrow for a 5 p.m. first serve.