UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No. 5 Penn State men's volleyball team began its 2022 season with a sweep of No. 6 BYU, 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-19) at Rec Hall Thursday evening.
The Nittany Lions (1-0) started hot and fast in the match and completed the night with a .365 hitting percentage. Sophomore middle blocker Toby Ezeonu made his home starting debut count with a team-best 10 kills and six blocks.
Senior outside hitter Brett Wildman tacked on nine kills with three service aces and senior opposite Cal Fisher added eight kills while hitting .429.
The win marked Penn State's highest ranked victory since taking down since beating then-No. 5 Lewis Jan. 18, 2020 on the road and snapped a 10-match losing streak against BYU (0-1).
"Any time you can start your season off with the Cougars, you know you're going to be tested," said head coach Mark Pavlik. "I'm pretty pleased with what we did on our side of the net. I think our serve certainly shows that we can cause some trouble for opponents offensively.
"Defensively, we were good enough to put ourselves to score some points and create some separation. I thought our blocking did a Yeoman's job tonight against some attackers that can come at you from some pretty different altitudes with some different arms. All in all, not a bad first night. We'll take a win in January volleyball."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn State started very strong in its first set of the season thanks to a .500 hitting percentage (11-3-16) as a team and three service aces. PSU pieced together two four-point runs early in the set capped off by an ace from Brett Wildman to take a commanding 13-6 lead.
The Nittany Lions didn't look back and extended its lead to as high as 11 at 22-11 and the final score in the set, 25-14.
BYU offered some push back in the second set thanks to a five-point run that allowed them to take a 11-9 edge in the second set, but the Nittany Lions immediately took the lead back behind the serve of Cal Fisher. Fisher led a three-point service run that included an ace to scamper back in front 14-12.
Penn State was particularly strong at the net in the second set with four big blocks, including back-to-back stuffs by Ezeonu and Fisher to lead 19-15. Brett Wildman's serve later powered a four-point run with his second ace of the evening and then Fisher and Ezeonu capped the set with a big block to win the frame 25-18.
Both teams traded points early in the third set until Penn State put together a great run behind the serve of Michal Kowal. His serve put the Cougars off balance to lead to three big kills in a row, but the sophomore added back-to-back aces to give PSU the 16-10 lead.
BYU pulled the margin as small as three, but a kill by Ezeonu and an ace by Gabe Hartke immediately put the momentum back on Penn State's side. Fisher ended the match with a service ace.
MIKE ANDERSON MAN OF THE MATCH
Toby Ezeonu was named the Mike Anderson Man of the Match in his first career start for the Nittany Lions. He led Penn State with 10 kills on 15 swings with a .467 hitting percentage. He was also great defensively with six total blocks.
MATCH NOTES AND STATS
- Penn State had nine service aces to BYU's one ace.
- PSU's block proved more effective than BYU's edging the Cougars 9.0-3.0.
- Ezeonu, Fisher and Wildman tied for the team lead with 13.5 points.
- BYU's Davide Gardini led the Cougars with nine kills hitting .188.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions and Cougars will do battle again Saturday evening, Jan. 8, at 7 p.m.