UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – A battle between top-five men's volleyball teams will take place Wednesday at Rec Hall when No. 4 Penn State hosts No. 3 Long Beach State at 7 p.m. Both teams are undefeated with the Nittany Lions entering at 6-0 and The Beach at 4-0.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
#3 Long Beach State (4-0, 0-0 Big West) at #4 Penn State (6-0, 0-0 EIVA)
Date: Wednesday, Jan. 25
Time: 7 p.m.
Place: Rec Hall
Watch: B1G+
Stats:Live Stats
PARKING
• Parking for all Penn State Athletics' non-football events will require a valid permit or payment of the applicable parking fee for campus lots. Fans with valid Penn State University Park parking permits will be permitted to park at non-football athletics events for free, following Transportation Services parking policies and access.
• Parking for men's volleyball matches, fans are asked to park in the Nittany Deck or West Deck. Fans without a permit are encouraged to prepay for event parking at a discounted rate of $6.00 through ParkMobile - https://psu.parkmobile.io/. Prepayment is available through 11:59 p.m. the day prior to each event. Event day parking will be $10 per vehicle and is cash only/can be purchased on the ParkMobile app.
•Parking for all non-football athletics events is managed by Penn State Transportation Services. For more information or questions, visit transportation.psu.edu or email parking@psu.edu.
CLEAR BAG POLICY
SERIES HISTORY - LONG BEACH STATE
- Penn State is 8-19 in the all-time series with Long Beach State. The teams first played in 1985.
- The Lions won last year's matchup 3-2 (25-27, 25-21, 20-25, 25-23, 15-11) at Long Beach.
- Toby Ezeonu had a near perfect match in last year's win, hitting .941 with 16 kills and three blocks. Brett Wildman hit .438 with 18 kills and four aces.
- The teams will play at Rec Hall for just the fourth time. Penn State is 1-2 at home against The Beach.
SCOUTING LONG BEACH STATE
- Long Beach State is ranked third in the nation and is 4-0 with wins over King (3-0), Lindenwood (3-0), Long Island (3-0), and George Mason (3-0).
- The Beach ranks first in the nation in aces/set (2.75), blocks/set (3.21), hitting percentage (.419), and opponent hitting percentage (.071).
- Long Beach State has played in three of the past four NCAA Championship matches, winning the national title in 2018 and 2019 and finishing as the runner-up last season.
PENN STATE NOTES & STATS
- John Kerr picked up two big awards for his performance in Penn State's wins over No. 5 Pepperdine and No. 8 Stanford this past weekend at the First Point Collegiate Challenge. He was named the EIVA Offensive Player of the Week on Monday and then added AVCA National Collegiate Player of the Week on Tuesday. Kerr is averaging 5.06 points/set this season. He's hitting .411 while averaging 4.11 kills/set.
- The Lions also picked up two national honors from Off the Block this week. Cole Bogner was named the National Setter of the Week, while Toby Ezeonu was the National Middle Attacker of the Week.
- Penn State swept the EIVA awards this week. Joining Kerr was Michal Kowal as the Defensive Player of the Week.
- Penn State is 6-0 to start the season for the first time since 2009.
- The Lions haven't lost a regular season home match since Feb. 14, 2021. That was a 3-0 defeat to NJIT. They have won 21 straight regular season home matches since that loss.
- Brett Wildman enters Wednesday's match with 988 career kills and needs just 12 to reach 1,000.
UP NEXT
- Penn State hosts USC, UCLA, and Ohio State for the Big Ten/Pac 12 Challenge on Feb. 3-4. The Lions will play USC and UCLA at the event.
For more information on Penn State men's volleyball, follow the Nittany Lions on Twitter @PennStateMVBALL and Instagram @pennstatemvball and "like" the Penn State men's volleyball page on Facebook.