COLUMBUS, Ohio – The third-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team continued the longest active winning streak in DI-II men's volleyball with its 10th-straight win in 3-0 fashion (25-23, 25-21, 25-21) on the road against No. 13 Ohio State Tuesday evening at the Covelli Center.
In a nonconference battle featuring two traditional Big Ten rivals, the Nittany Lions (14-3) earned their 11th 3-0 sweep of the season and fifth win over a ranked opponent in 2022.
"The composure of the first half of the match was just as important as the serving and blocking in the second half," said head coach Mark Pavlik. "I'm really proud of the composure of this group. We stuck with it and eventually our servers and blockers took over."
Brett Wildman led the Nittany Lions with 10 kills and no errors for a .526 hitting percentage. Cal Fisher added nine kills and nine digs.
Toby Ezeonu was a force once again with seven kills and five blocks. Defensively, Sam Marsh and Wildman both chipped in with four blocks each as the Nittany Lions had 9.0 blocks as a team.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Penn State struggled early in the match as the home squad came out hot. Ohio State quickly had a five-point advantage at 8-3 before an Ezeonu kill got Penn State back on track.
The Buckeyes wound up extending their lead to as much as six in the game, including a 19-13 lead late in the frame. But that's when Penn State's composure paid off and flipped the script. The Nittany Lions picked up seven of the next eight points to tie the set 20-20, a run that included a pair of blocks by Marsh and five total errors by the Buckeyes.
Trailing 23-22, Ezeonu put down a kill to tie the score and Bogner aced a serve to set up set point. Another Buckeye miscue allowed Penn State to steal the first set on the road 25-23.
Penn State's offensive execution improved in set two as Penn State only had one hitting error in the frame. The visitors earned three points in a row to take a 14-13 lead after a Fisher kill, Marsh ace, and Ezeonu solo block.
From there, Penn State kept earning an extra point at a time on their service to slowly build their margin. After a timeout when Ohio State cut it to two at 22-20, Wildman and Ezeonu regrouped the Nittany Lions with a kill each and an emphatic block to win game two 25-21.
After recording 19 kills in the first two games, 15 of Penn State's points in the third game came via kills as the Nittany Lions aimed for the sweep. Fisher heated up with six of his kills coming in the stanza, including one to cap a 3-0 spurt that broke a 16-16 tie to put PSU ahead 19-16.
Wildman earned his 10th kill of the night followed by Bogner's second service ace of the evening for a 21-17 Penn State advantage and the Nittany Lions never looked back. A pair of Ohio State errors capped the match with another 25-21 set win for Penn State to lengthen the Nittany Lions' win streak to 10 in a row.
MATCH NOTES AND STATS
- Wildman now has 13 matches with double-digit kills this season and ups his season hitting percentage to .347. This was his first errorless match on attacks in 2021-22.
- Ezeonu has 19 blocks in his last three matches, good for a 1.72 blocks per set rate over those 11 sets.
- Penn State is now 13-0 this season when hitting .300 or better.
- Penn State's 10-match win streak is just one shy of its 2021 11-match spree. The last time Penn State had 10 wins in a row before that was an 11-match win streak in 2016.
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions and Buckeyes conclude their season series with a Sunday matchup March 13 at Rec Hall. The match will be Penn State's "Wear White" match with free admission for all fans.