UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 10th-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team finished off a 2-0 weekend in the Big Ten/Pac 12 Challenge with a thrilling 3-2 (23-25, 29-27, 27-29, 25-23, 15-12) win over USC on Sunday at Rec Hall. It was the first time the Lions went 2-0 in the five-year history of the event.
Penn State won its fourth straight match to improve to 4-2 on the season, while USC dropped to 1-6 overall. The Trojans are coming off a season in which they qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
The Lions hit .371 as a team, tallied 16.5 blocks, and took advantage of 26 service errors by the Trojans.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After trading wins through the first four sets, all of which were decided by just two points, Penn State trailed 11-10 in the deciding set before scoring five of the final six points. The match ended with a 3-0 Penn State run that started with a service error and finished with a pair of double blocks by Henrik Faulk Lauten and Jason Donorovich.
Brett Wildman had three kills on four swings in the final set and finished with 19 on .486 hitting for the match. He tied USC's Kyle Gear for the match high in kills.
Calvin Mende did a little bit of everything for Penn State, hitting .452 with 17 kills in addition to seven digs, six total blocks and three aces. Donorovich was solid all-around, as well, coming through with nine total blocks and nine kills on .471 hitting. Bobby Wilden had 11 kills to give the Lions three in double-digits and added four block assists.
Penn State had leads late in each of its two set losses, going up 23-22 before falling 25-23 in set one, and leading 26-25 before dropping the third set 29-27.
The Lions overcame those two defeats with a couple of tough wins of their own. They scored three straight points to take set two, 29-27. The run began and ended with kills by Wildman. Those were sandwiched around a triple block by Cole Bogner, Canyon Tuman and Wilden. The Lions trailed by as much as four (13-9) in the fourth set before coming back for the 25-23 win. Mende closed that set with a kill off an assist from Bogner.
Bogner recorded 53 assists on the night while also contributing six digs and four block assists. Nearly everyone chipped in on the defense at the net, including Tuman with five block assists and Falck Lauten with three block assists.
USC was paced by Vecas Lewin, who hit .611 with 12 kills. Kyle Gear finished with 19 kills on .375 hitting and added seven digs. Chris Hall totaled a match-high 65 assists.
MIKE ANDERSON MAN OF THE MATCH
Jason Donorovich was the recipient of the Mike Anderson Man of the Match after teaming up with Henrik Falck Lauten for a pair of blocks to close the fifth set. Donorovich had three total blocks in addition to two kills on two swings in the deciding set. He finished the match with nine kills and nine total blocks.
HEAR IT FROM THEM
Head Coach Mark Pavlik
• "Matches like these are tough on these guys. They try to grit it out and understand that we don't have our best stuff, so we have to play in the black a little bit. We have to use our opportunities; we can't give away opportunities. For us on the bench, it's even tougher because you see the stretches of great volleyball by both teams and you say 'that is the way the game is supposed to be played.' Then you see the stretches that don't resemble the sport that we know you say 'man who is coaching that team?' These guys love to go in the deuce games. I can't say enough of how proud I am of their effort to just find a way to win. That's a trait this team has shown in the past six matches; we will find a way to win."
• "The team is setting a standard that they know where their compete level is at. They're not going to be afraid to look at a scoreboard and be concerned we are down one and they have 23 or 24. It's great to have that this early in the season."
Sophomore Outside Hitter Brett Wildman
• "We went into this game knowing that [USC] were competitors and they were going to play pretty hard. We were just trying to focus on our own side. We knew that our top-level could out-match them in the long run. We just focused on our side and handling what we had to do to get the win."
Redshirt Senior Middle Blocker Jason Donorovich
• "This team seems to be clicking a lot more than teams might have in the past. I think we all know we are all really good volleyball players and we can compete with anyone in the nation. This team loves volleyball and loves to compete with each other. It's like playing backyard volleyball."
Redshirt Senior Opposite Calvin Mende
• "The confidence comes from the fact that we have been in so many close games. So it's not like we look at the scoreboard and its 25-25 and we're like 'oh my gosh.' We've been here about ten other times before this season."
GAME NOTES
• Penn State beat USC for the fifth time in six matches. Each of the last four of those matches went five sets.
• The Lions have a four-match winning streak over the Trojans in matches played in University Park, winning in 2004, 2005, 2016 and 2020.
• Calvin Mende's three service aces matched a career high that he set against Lewis in 2017.
• Brett Wildman's 19 kills were easily a season-high, eclipsing the 12 he had in a win over UCLA on Friday. His career high is 24 against Princeton last season.
• The match featured 45 ties and 14 lead changes.
UP NEXT
Penn State hosts Ball State in South Gym on Friday at 7 p.m., and Ohio State in Rec Hall's main gym on Saturday at 7 p.m.
