LONG BEACH, Calif. – The No. 4 Penn State men's volleyball rallied down two sets to one to complete a 3-2 (25-27, 25-21, 20-25, 25-23, 15-11) victory over No. 3 Long Beach State on the road Saturday night at Walter Pyramid.
The Nittany Lions (5-3) were powered by an incredible performance in the middle by sophomore Toby Ezeonu, who finished the night with 16 kills, 0 errors and a .941 hitting percentage. He also had five blocks, with two solos.
Ezeonu had five kills and two blocks come in the fifth-and-deciding set to swing the match in Penn State's favor.
Senior Brett Wildman also had a great offensive night with a team-high 18 kills at a .438 clip plus a booming serve that earned him four aces and several other Penn State points.
Senior Will Bantle was also excellent defensively with 14 digs and no reception errors, highlighted by great passing to keep Penn State in system in the clutch.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn State sped off to a quick 6-2 lead with an Ezeonu block forcing a Long Beach timeout early on. Long Beach slowly crawled its way back thanks to a combination of Penn State errors and some good defense at the net in form of blocks. The Beach had six blocks in the set while Penn State had just one.
LBSU turned the tables and lead 23-20 late in the game, but Ezeonu kept Penn State in it with two of his seven kills late in the frame. Brett Wildman went to the service line needed to stall two set points and he did that with back-to-back aces to force extra points.
Ezeonu picked up his seventh kill of the set on his seventh swing in extra points, but the Beach closed the game with a solo block to win game one 27-25.
Penn State was much more efficient offensively in the second game and held between a 2–4-point lead throughout the set to take it 25-21. The Nittany Lions hit .429 in the set with six kills coming from Wildman and three each from Fisher and Valenzi.
Penn State had an unfortunate run in the beginning of the third set with five hitting errors in a row to put themselves in a deficit early in the set. The middle of the third set featured a couple of long rallies, including a great out-of-system set by Michael Valenzi cross court to Cal Fisher for a kill.
PSU trailed by as much as seven in the set but battled to close the gap to as few as four, but Long Beach took the game 25-20 to lead 2-1 in the match.
The Nittany Lions clutch factor started to show up in the fourth set as Fisher, who had struggled a bit to that point in the night, began earning big points for the visitors. Fisher had five of his 15 kills come in the fourth game to lead PSU.
In addition, a big service run by Wildman that included an ace swung the score in Penn State's favor at 20-18. Long Beach ended up scoring the next two points to tie the frame, but PSU wouldn't be denied as they forced the Beach in to mistakes that gave the Nittany Lions a 25-23 set win to even the match, 2-2.
Ezeonu commanded the court in the fifth-and-deciding game to lead Penn State to victory. Both teams traded sideout points early in the fifth set, but Ezeonu registered an infatic solo block to put Penn State ahead 13-10 and force a timeout.
The big man scored Penn State's 14th point on a kill and then teamed up with Valenzi to clinch the match on a block to win the game 15-11 and complete the 3-2 victory for the fourth-ranked Nittany Lions.
MATCH NOTES & STATS
- Ezeonu began the match with 10 kills on 10 swings before Long Beach finally dug one of his attacks and kept it in play.
- Fisher had one service ace to reach 107 for his career, moving him into a tie for seventh all-time in the Penn State record books with Joe Sunder.
- Wildman's 18 kills were his most in a match since the 2021 EIVA title game when he had 22 vs. George Mason.
- Bantle has now gone five matches in a row without a receiving error. His 14-dig performance was his 11th double-digit dig match in his career.
NEXT UP
Penn State returns home to begin conference play in the EIVA hosting Princeton and George Mason Feb. 4-5 at Rec Hall. Friday's match versus the Tigers will be Penn State's 2021 EIVA banner raising celebration.