CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The fourth-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team battled to its third-straight sweep and fourth-straight win with a 3-0 (25-22, 28-26, 25-19) victory over Harvard Friday evening.
Penn State (8-3) improves to 3-0 in EIVA play with the win and have yet to drop a set in conference action.
Senior outside hitter Brett Wildman led Penn State with 12 kills while senior opposite Cal Fisher matched him with 13 points on 11 kills and two aces. Fisher also had a team-high nine digs.
Senior setter Cole Bogner had 32 assists and snuck in four kills. Sophomore Michael Valenzi added seven kills while hitting .545 (7-1-11) plus an ace.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a back-and-forth affair early in set one with Harvard holding a 16-14 lead, but Penn State's service pressure immediately swung the score back in its favor with a 7-1 run that included aces from Tim Herget and Fisher plus kills by Fisher and Valenzi.
Harvard did get a couple points back to trail by as few as two late, but Penn State wound up winning the set, 25-22 on a Wildman kill.
Penn State looked to be right in line to win the second game when it had set point at 24-21, the Crimson went on a 3-0 run that included a service error and hitting error by the Nittany Lions to force the set to extra points.
Wildman earned three points for the Nittany Lions in extras with two kills and a set-clinching ace to win game two 28-26.
Penn State had a little more breathing room in the third game leading 13-8 after another Wildman kill and a Valenzi service ace forced a Crimson timeout, but the home team wouldn't go quietly and battled back to trail by just one at 15-14 and eventually a tie score happened at 17-17 after back-to-back errors by the Nittany Lions.
The Nittany Lions got a kill from Fisher to sideout right away with the score 20-18 and then Fisher served the Crimson into two errors to extend the margin to four at 22-18.
The Nittany Lions earned the last three points of the match with a kill each from Valezni, Marsh, and Bogner to close game three 25-19 and win the match 3-0.
MATCH NOTES
- Penn State improves to 20-3 all-time against Harvard, including a four-match win streak. This was PSU's first battle against the Crimson since 2020.
- The Nittany Lions' middle-blocker duo of Sam Marsh and Toby Ezeonu combined for eight kills with just one error.
- Will Bantle had four digs and went 18-19 on serve receive. He has a .984 serve-receive rate for the season.
- Wildman is averaging 4.22 kills per set during Penn State's last three wins.
- Penn State is 8-0 when hitting .300-or-better this season as a team.
NEXT UP
Penn State heads to Sacred Heart Saturday afternoon for a matchup with the Pioneers at 4 p.m.