UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The 10th-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team roared to a big comeback victory, winning three-straight sets to down No. 11 Princeton, 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-19) at Rec Hall Friday evening.
After dropping set one and grinding out a set two win, the Nittany Lions (5-6, 1-0 EIVA) hit .473 (33-7-55) in the third and fourth sets to roll to five and six-point wins in the last two games.
The Nittany Lions snapped Princeton's (5-5, 3-1 EIVA) three-match win streak with the win and ended the Tigers' five-match win streak over PSU since the 2018 season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams were tied 9-9 when the Nittany Lions went on a 5-0 run, with four points coming behind the serve of Brett Wildman. The run included an ace by the sophomore and two kills from senior Jason Donorovich.
Princeton slowly worked its way back with a four-point spurt later to pull within one at 16-15 and the Tigers eventually took lead at 19-18 and did not look back, ending the game on a 16-6 run after taking a timeout all the way back when Penn State led at 14-9.
In set two, Penn State got a service ace from Henrik Falck Lauten to make it 7-4 as a part of a three-point rally that gave PSU an 8-4 edge.
Princeton pulled the margin within as close as two at several points and even managed to pull within one late a couple of times with both teams in the 20s, but Penn State persevered to win the game after a big block from Sam Marsh and Wildman plus a Princeton error gave PSU its final two points needed.
Penn State made a lineup change in the third set by inserting Bobby Wilden to the rotation and the Nittany Lions found a much smoother offensive rhythm. Princeton led 6-2 early, but the Nittany Lions clawed their way back to tie the score 11-11 and take a 13-12 edge on a Wilden kill.
PSU hit .481 (16-3-27) after posting hitting percentages of .097 and .154 in the first two sets. Back-to-back kills from Wildman and Wilden at 16-14 put momentum on Penn State's side and the Nittany Lions never looked back, taking the set by five, 25-20.
The Nittany Lions came out with a closers' mentality in the fourth game to put the match away. Penn State had three kills in a row from Wildman, Wilden, and Donorovich to lead 13-8 and force a Princeton timeout.
Penn State's lead swelled to nine points at 19-10 after two more Wilden kills and a Princeton attack error and the Nittany Lions wouldn't allow the Tigers to recover, ending the match with a 25-19 win in game four.
HEAR IT FROM THEM
Head Coach Mark Pavlik
- "I really thought our guys took advantage of a lot of situations especially in games two, three and four. I thought we didn't leave as many points on the table as we did in game one. I thought we played with better poise the last three games, especially games three and four where we got the lead and held onto it. Pretty good win for us tonight."
Sophomore Cal Fisher
- "I think that we've had, as we've been saying over the past couple weeks, one of the most intense and overwhelming [nonconference schedules] we've ever had in terms of the teams we've played. They've all been top ranked and we've battled with them and competed with them. I think that it really gave us an edge going into EIVA's this week seeing those top teams and competing against them."
Junior Bobby Wilden
- "…It's been something that we've really been working on in practice this week. We need to keep the difference. If you have a two-point lead at 5-3, you want to maintain that or build upon it. That's just something we were able to focus on by breaking the game down into little mini segments and focus on those five-point games.
MAN OF THE MATCH
Redshirt junior Bobby Wilden did not start this match and only played two sets, but he was arguably Penn State's most important player for the evening. He had 10 kills at a .571 clip (10-2-14) in the second and third sets plus adding a solo block and three digs. His play provided a spark for the Nittany Lions' offense after splitting games one and two.
NOTABLE STATS
- Brett Wildman led all scorers with 19.5 points and a match-high 17 kills, marking his ninth-straight match with double-digit kills. He hit .433 (17-3-30) and had a pair of service aces.
- Cal Fisher hit .250 with 13 kills from the opposite position, but improved as the match went on with six kills in the third and fourth set and a .384 hitting clip in the last two games. He also had a team-best nine digs, closely followed by Will Bantle with eight.
- Penn State's middle blockers Jason Donorovich and Sam Marsh combined for 12 kills a five blocks.
- Penn State's serve-receive was excellent again at .986 (68-69) for the match. Bantle was 24-24.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions host NJIT in Rec Hall's South Gym Saturday evening at 7 p.m.