No. 15 Men's Volleyball Continues Road Trip at No. 6 Pepperdine on WednesdayNo. 15 Men's Volleyball Continues Road Trip at No. 6 Pepperdine on Wednesday

No. 15 Men's Volleyball Continues Road Trip at No. 6 Pepperdine on Wednesday

Penn State is 11-5 on the season

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Series Breakdown

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SERIES HISTORY
• Penn State and Pepperdine will meet for the 23rd time. The teams first played in 1983.
• The Waves hold a 17-5 lead in the series, but Penn State won the most recent matchup 3-1 in 2023. That match was played in Austin, Texas.
• The Nittany Lions are 2-4 in road matches against the Waves.

SERIES HISTORY VS. PEPPERDINE (LAST 10)

Year Winner Score Location
1992 Pepperdine 3-0 Muncie, Ind.
1998 Pepperdine 3-0 Malibu, Calif.
1999 Pepperdine 3-1 Rec Hall
1999 Pepperdine 3-1 Norristown, Pa.
1999 Pepperdine 3-0 Council Rock, Pa.
2000 Pepperdine 3-0 Malibu, Calif.
2001 Pepperdine 3-0 Malibu, Calif.
2008 Penn State 3-1 Irvine, Calif.
2012 Pepperdine 3-2 Malibu, Calif.
2023 Penn State 3-1 Austin, Texas

 

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PENN STATE VS. MPSF
• Penn State is 46-99-1 all-time against current members of the MPSF.
• The Nittany Lions have played six of the 10 teams in the conference. They haven’t played the four newest members -- Jessup, Menlo, UC Merced, and Vanguard.

Team Record Last Played Score
BYU 12-15 2022 W, 3-0
CUI 2-0 2023 W, 3-0
Menlo 0-0 -- --
Jessup 0-0 -- --
Pepperdine 5-17 2023 W, 3-1
Stanford 7-7 2025 L, 1-3
UCLA 8-37-1 2025 L, 0-3
UC Merced 0-0 -- --
USC 12-23 2025 L, 0-3
Vanguard 0-0 -- --
Total 46-99-1    
EUT_9292

STREAKS TO WATCH

Ryan Merk
• 108 straight starts at libero

Owen Rose
• 10 straight matches with at least 1.00 blocks/set
• 81 straight starts at middle blocker

Team
• 8 straight wins against EIVA opponents

Match Notes

OPENING NOTES
• Penn State, competing in the 50th season in program history, continues its west coast trip Wednesday night when it takes on No. 6 Pepperdine.
• The Waves are the second of three top-10 opponents for the Nittany Lions during the week-long road trip. They saw their seven-match winning streak come to an end with a 3-0 loss to No. 2 Long Beach State on Saturday and follow Pepperdine with a match at No. 5 USC on Saturday.

PAVLIK'S LAST SEASON
• Mark Pavlik announced prior to the season that this season, his 32nd as the head coach of Penn State, will be his last.
• Pavlik is just the third head coach in the 50 seasons of Penn State men’s volleyball. 

PAVLIK'S RESUME
• 2008 National Champion
• 1x AVCA National Coach of the Year
• 25 EIVA Tournament titles
• 27 EIVA regular season title
• 10x EIVA Coach of the Year
• 705 wins ranks fourth in the history of collegiate men's volleyball and first amongst current coaches.

SCOUTING PEPPERDINE
• Pepperdine is ranked sixth in the nation after starting 11-4 overall. The Waves are 3-0 in the MPSF with wins over Vanguard (3-0), Jessup (3-1), and Jessup (3-0).
• The Waves are coming off a weekend split at No. 2 Hawaii, beating the Rainbow Warriors 3-1 in the first match before falling 3-1 in the second match.
• Pepperdine was picked second in the MPSF Preseason Poll. The Waves are the defending champion in the conference and return All-Americans Ryan Barnett, Cole Hartke, James Eadie, and Jacob Reilly. Hartke was the MPSF Freshman of the Year last season.
• The Waves rank first in the MPSF and third nationally in aces/set (2.19). They also rank first in the conference in blocks/set (2.62).
• Hartke ranks first nationally in kills/set (4.56). He ranks second in the conference in aces/set (0.48).

IN THE POLL
• Penn State was ranked No. 15 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll and has been ranked in each of the first 10 polls of this season.
• The Nittany Lions have appeared in the Coaches Poll for a total of 618 of the 654 weeks since the rankings debuted in 1986. That stands as the fifth most of any program in the nation.

CAREER HIGHS SET LAST WEEK
at Long Beach State - Saturday
Matthew Luoma - digs (9)
Bennett Wilson - digs (4)

CONFERENCE LEADERS
• Penn State leads all EIVA teams in aces/set (1.36), blocks/set (2.83), hitting percentage (.268), winning percentage (.688), and opponent hitting percentage (.197).
• Individually, Ryan Merk ranks first in the EIVA in digs/set (2.29). Owen Rose ranks first in blocks/set (1.141), and Sean Harvey ranks first in hitting percentage (.294).

RECORD FOR ROSE
Owen Rose needed just three sets to a set a program record with 14 blocks, including four solo, in a sweep over Harvard on Feb. 20.
• Rose’s 14 blocks broke the previous record of 13 accomplished by Kevin Hourican against Rutgers Newark during the sideout scoring era in 1995, Keith Kowal against Princeton during the rally scoring era in 2005, and Nate Meerstein vs. UC Irvine during the rally scoring era in 2006.
• Rose ranks first in the EIVA this season and second nationally in blocks/set (1.37).