UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 8 Penn State men's volleyball used a balanced and explosive attack to down Saint Francis in straight sets, 3-0, in Thursday night's EIVA semifinal match at Rec Hall.
Penn State (20-3) featured a top-notch effort from the service line and remained steady and consistent in all facets of its game to move on to the EIVA title game with a chance to clinch an automatic NCAA Tournament berth.
"I thought that for 85-percent of the match, we were playing like we had the second half of the entire season," said head coach Mark Pavlik. "We were making good decisions offensively. I thought our serve was limiting the amount of times they could get the ball to the middles and I thought, defensively, we were playing pretty good defense. It was tough to put a ball down against us."
The Nittany Lions hit .390 for the match with freshman outside hitter Michal Kowal leading the way with 12 kills at a .455 clip. Junior Brett Wildman added 10 kills with a few highlight-worthy moments and junior Cal Fisher had eight kills to go with three aces.
Junior Sam Marsh had three service aces and a pair of blocks to go with three kills. Redshirt junior Will Bantle had 11 digs to lead the Nittany Lions defensively.
An early service run by Fisher that included an ace and kills by four different Nittany Lions immediately put Penn State in control 6-1 in set one.
A highlight assist by Wildman setting up Fisher extended the Penn State lead to 13-6 and from there, the Red Flash never pulled the margin closer than six points. Penn State had a balanced attack in the first set with Fisher, Kowal, and Wildman all putting down four kills and the Nittany Lions hitting .500 in the set to take it 25-16.
In set two, back-to-back aces by Sam Marsh after a Kowal kill broke a 6-6 tie into a 9-6 Penn State lead. The Nittany Lions ran off five of the next seven points, featuring two more kills by Kowal and a block by Tuman and Bogner to lead 13-8.
Saint Francis slowly closed the gap, bringing the score to as close as two after an ace at 23-21, but he Nittany Lions closed the set with kills from Fisher and Kowal to close the second and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The pace of the match slowed down in the third set thanks to several challenges by both teams that kept the score close early in the frame. A great effort play that included a Wildman save near the scorers' table and ended with a Bogner and Tuman block put Penn State in front 14-11.
A solo block by Tuman sparked a three-point run for Penn State to lead 17-13, forcing a Saint Francis timeout. Out of the timeout, SFU went on a 5-1 run to tie the match 18-18, with a solo block by Wildman giving the Nittany Lions the lead again.
Penn State was able to close the match from there, scoring six of the last eight points to win the set 25-20 and clinch a 3-0 sweep.
MATCH NOTES AND STATS
- Penn State improves to 4-1 all-time in the postseason against Saint Francis. Thursday night's win came on the four-year anniversary of Penn State's last EIVA title, which was also a 3-0 win over the Red Flash at Rec Hall.
- PSU had seven aces to SFU's four, but the Nittany Lions kept the Red Flash passers off balance all night with their serves, pinning SFU down to a .224 hitting percentage for the match while Penn State's offense worked at .390.
- Bantle's 11 digs marked the fourth times this season he has reached double-digit digs.
- Wildman's 10 kills marked his 11th match of the season in 2021. With 12, Kowal had his second-highest total of his freshman season and third double-digit kill match.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions take on No. 13 George Mason in the EIVA Championship match Saturday at 7 p.m. at Rec Hall. The Patriots defeated No. 11 NJIT 3-0 in Thursday's first EIVA semifinal.