COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Penn State men's volleyball 2021 season came to a close Tuesday night with a tough straight-sets loss to third-seeded Lewis in the National Collegiate men's volleyball tournament opening round at Ohio State's Covelli Center.
In a match featuring the nation's only two teams with 20-or-more wins this season, the Nittany Lions (22-4) had their chances to pick up a few critical points that could have tipped the balance in their favor in all three sets, but a physical Flyers team came out on top in more of those instances than not to win and advance to the national semifinals.
Cal Fisher paced Penn State with 13 kills hitting .323 while outsides Brett Wildman and Michal Kowal combined for 19 kills. Needing its service game to play a big factor, Penn State did have seven aces to Lewis' three, but the Flyers won the battle at the point of attack with 9.5 team blocks to Penn State's 2.0.
Penn State hit .277 for the match while the Flyers had just six hitting errors to hit .460.
With the Nittany Lions trailing 10-7 in set one, a three-point rally with a Fisher aced sandwiched between a pair of Kowal kills quickly tied the score back at 10-10. The set was a side-out battle from then on out with no margin larger than two in the set.
Unfortunately for the Nittany Lions, Lewis held all of the two-point leads for the rest of the frame, including the final one to clinch the set 25-23.
Penn State came out hot in the second set with a kill and ace on back-to-back points for Wildman to force Lewis to call timeout at 9-5 Nittany Lions. Penn State maintained a four-point advantage for some time after that with an 18-14 advantage in the set.
But Lewis got hot with a four-point run to tie the score at 18-all to force a tense back-and-forth between both squads. Lewis eventually took the lead, but Penn State stalled three set points before the Flyers finally scored back-to-back to win an extended second frame 27-25.
Another quick start in set three by Penn State had the Nittany Lions in front 10-5. Bogner had a solo block plus a joust win for a kill to contribute to the spurt.
Like the second game, however, Lewis managed to storm back with a 7-2 run to tie the score at 12-12. A big block by John Kerr and Sam Marsh allowed Penn State to retake the lead at 16-15, only for the Flyers to respond with a three-point run and lead 18-16.
From there, the Nittany Lions could not tie the score again and the Flyers made the winning plays they needed down the stretch to win the third set 25-20 and take the match 3-0.
Penn State completes its 2021 season with its 22-4 overall record and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2017 season. With its 3-0 victory over Belmont Abbey May 3, the Nittany Lions also won their first NCAA Tournament contest since 2015.
Penn State drops to 1-2 overall against the Flyers in the NCAA Tournament in program history.
