CHICAGO – The No. 14 Penn State men's volleyball team picked up its first win of the 2020 campaign with a 3-0 (33-31, 25-20, 25-16) sweep of No. 12 Loyola Chicago Friday evening at Gentile Arena.
The sweep for Penn State (1-2) was just its third on the road against Loyola Chicago in program history and its first since Jan. 20, 2012.
The Nittany Lions fought back from trailing by as much as four in the first set and thwarted six Loyola Chicago (1-4) set points to win the frame.
Penn State wouldn't look back from there with resounding wins in sets two and three. Brett Wildman paced Penn State with 14 kills and hitting .312 (14-4-32) while Calvin Mende chipped in 10 kills at a .391 clip (10-1-23).
Wildman, Mende, Bobby Wilden and Jason Donorovich all finished with 10.5 points or more.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Nittany Lions started off slowly in the first set with both hitting errors and service errors giving Loyola Chicago an early 7-3 lead. Penn State settled in behind kills from Jason Donorovich and Calvin Mende plus a block by Donorovich and Wildman to tie the score at 8-8.
After having a negative hitting percentage early in the frame, the Nittany Lions slowly got their way back into positive numbers by the middle of the set. Two kills in a row from Wilden tied the score again at 13-13.
The first set turned into a lengthy frame where Penn State fended off six set points in total, including one that was won after a successful challenge from Coach Mark Pavlik with Penn State trailing 24-25. His successful challenge gave Cole Bogner a kill to tie the score 25-25.
Another kill by Bogner later would tie the score 31-31, and then Bogner teamed up with Donorovich for another block to give Penn State the serve again for their fourth set point.
Wildman picked up his seventh kill of the set to win the frame 33-31.
Wildman picked up right where he left off with a great serving run to start the second set. Behind two aces from Wildman and several more serves that set up Penn State points, the Nittany Lions sped out to a 5-0 lead in the frame.
Loyola Chicago fought back to pull within two on multiple occasions, the latest of which being 10-8, but Penn State never gave up the lead. Kills by Canyon Tuman and Mende plus a Donorovich ace got PSU to 15 first at 15-9.
Penn State held on comfortably for the rest of the set to take the frame by five, 25-20.
The Nittany Lions used their serve as a weapon to pounce ahead in the third set as well, as Wildman and Donorovich each had an ace and prolonged serving runs to put Penn State ahead 7-2.
Three kills in a row by the Nittany Lions forced a Loyola timeout with Penn State leading 11-4. Penn State was hitting .559 (6-1-9) at that point the set.
Penn State was able to maintain its edge throughout the third, never letting Loyola shrink the margin lower than six. The Nittany Lions had their most efficient offensive frame in the third, hitting .455 (12-2-22) as a team with four of their eight aces in the set.
HEAR IT FROM THEM
Head Coach Mark Pavlik
- "The resiliency of this group really showed tonight. We were battling ourselves in that first set with our serve and some of the swings we had. Once we came back to win that first set, Brett [Wildman's] serve took over early in that second set and we really settled in from there."
- "It was nice to get this win under our belt finally. We'll take it. We still know there's work to be done, but we're on the right track. Time to get ready for a tough Lewis team tomorrow."
GAME NOTES
- In addition to his 10th-career 10-plus kill performance, Brett Wildman set a new career high with his four service aces. His six digs were also one short of his single-game career high set April 14, 2019 against George Mason.
- Cal Mende now has 31 career matches with 10 or more kills. This was his first match with double-digit put downs since he had 14 March 29, 2019 at Harvard. He also had seven digs, his most digs in a match since April 14, 2018 against NJIT.
- In his second career start, Bobby Wilden had a great all-around performance with eight kills hitting .353 (8-2-17), and career highs in digs (9) and blocks (5).
- Jason Donorovich began the match a perfect 5-0-5 in the first set and finished hitting .364 (6-2-11). With five blocks in the match, he now has 21 career matches with three or more blocks.
- Cole Bogner showed flashes of brilliance with several athletic plays during his 37-assist, four-kill, and three-block performance.
- The Nittany Lions held several significant team advantages for the match in team blocks (11.0-3.0), hitting percentage (.354-.177), and service aces (8-3).
- The win over a ranked team marked the first for Penn State since Feb. 3, 2018 when the Nittany Lions took down Purdue Fort Wayne (then IPFW) 3-1.
NEXT UP
Penn State takes on No. 5 Lewis in Romeoville beginning at 8 p.m. Saturday night.