Match Stats
- Sacred Heart defeats #13 Penn State 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-18)
- Sacred Heart improves to 10-2 (3-1 EIVA)
- Penn State falls to 9-6 (4-2 EIVA)
Sacred Heart rattled off three straight sets for a comeback victory over Penn State – the first win over Penn State in program history. The 3-1 victory also left Sacred Heart atop the EIVA standings, tied with Princeton at 3-1 and one game ahead of Penn State.
Christopher DeLucie nailed 17 kills and 9 digs for Sacred Heart. After hitting just .125 in an opening set 21-25 loss, Sacred Heart turned up the heat and hit .297 or better in each of the next three sets. Michael Comens also had 15 kills and Emerson Waumans had 11. Defensively, Joshua Ayzenberg led with 22 digs.
Penn State’s Aidan Albrecht did have 14 kills and 11 digs for a double double. The Nittany Lions rolled early with a huge first set, but were stymied over the next two sets, hitting just .148 and .088 in sets 2 and 3.
Press Releases:
Sacred Heart:
The Sacred Heart Men’s Volleyball team headed to #13 ranked Penn State for an EIVA competition. The Pioneers took down the Nittany Lions in four set. The Pioneers rattled off three set to win the match 3-1. The Pioneers are back at home as they take on NJIT the 24th, at 7:00pm.
SET 1- The Pioneers were down, 4-1 early in the first, but a Emerson Waumans service ace led to a 4-3 score. The Nittany Lions were on a tear as they jumped to a 20-14 advantage. A timeout from SHU lead to a 3-0 run moving the score to 21-18, but the late Sacred Heart rally wouldn’t hold as PSU took the first set 25-21.
SET 2- The Pioneers started the second set focused, going on a 5-2 run. The Nittany Lions rallied back to tie it up 10-10. SHU would go on a 3-0 run, led by Christopher DeLucie. PSU wasn’t going down with a fight, tieing it up 18-18, but SHU would hold on as the Pioneers took the seconds set, 25-23.
SET 3- The third set was a battle as each team exchanged points, 15-12 in favor of Penn State. A three point run from the Pioneers would tie it up 15-15, as Waumans led the rally. Each team continued to exchange points till the Pioneers held a 21-19 lead after a DeLucie kill. Back-to-back attack errors from the Nittany Lions ended the set with the Pioneers on top 25-23.
SET 4- The final set of the night, the Pioneers saw the light at the end of the tunnel as they were in the zone. SHU jumped to a 11-4 lead. Penn State chipped away at the Pioneer lead but after a Bloomquist kill the Pioneers sat with a 14-9 advantage. Comens keep the Pioneers show going as they sat with a 20-13 lead. To end the game Bloomquist hit a big kill, to give the Pioneers the 25-18 win over #13 Penn State.
Penn State:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 13 Penn State (9-6, 4-2) dropped an EIVA match Saturday night against Sacred Heart 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 23-25, 18-25) at Rec Hall.
“I think it’s a great win by Sacred Heart,” said head coach Mark Pavlik.
“I think it’s a great example of what a great libero can do for a team. (Joshua) Ayzenberg is the heartbeat of their team, and he averaged over five digs a game on us, he made some amazing on-on-one digs and kept them in rallies. Game one we came out and did what we needed to do, we passed the ball, and we hit .364. Game two and three I don’t know if we expected them to just back off and mosey in and say `I don’t feel like competing’ but I think at that point they started to out defend us they started to out compete us which is really disappointing.”
Aidan Albrecht led Penn State in kills recording 14 on the night while adding 11 digs and three blocks.
Kevin Gear earned Mike Anderson Memorial Player of the Game honors with his seven kills, one assist, four digs and eight blocks against the Pioneers.
Luke Braswell notched 41 kills while Royce Clemens posted 13 digs to lead the Nittany Lions.
Penn State opened that match with a 25-21 win in the opening set, paired with a second set 25-23 loss to send the teams to the locker-room tied at the half 1-1.
Set three was the entire way as neither team was able to put together more than a few points before the other team battled back with the largest lead for either team during the set being four points.
A Nittany Lion attack error knotted the game at 15-15 prompting a Mark Pavlik timeout to talk to his team.
Penn State scored two straight out of the timeout to take a 17-15 lead, but as mentioned the inability of either team to string together a long series of points played into the hand of Sacred heart as they embarked on a 6-2 run to assume a 22-19 lead forcing a second Penn State timeout.
Back-to-back Sacred Heart errors started the rally for Penn State as they pulled to within one (22-21) of the Pioneers which was enough for SHU to call their first timeout of the set.
Christopher DeLucie notched a kill out of the break and Penn State’s Aidan Albrecht answered back with a kill of his own the next play.
DeLucie committed an attack error to complete the comeback as Penn State tied it at 23-23 where Sacred Heart burned their second timeout.
Out of the timeout, back-to-back attack errors by the Nittany Lions gave the set to Sacred Heart who took a 2-1 lead heading to the fourth.
Sacred Heart took advantage of the moment jumping out to an early lead in set four 11-4 and never looked back taking the set 25-18 and earning their first win against Penn State in program history.
This marks the first time under Pavlik that Penn State has lost at least two EIVA conference games in back-to-back seasons following a 12-2 EIVA record last season.
Penn State will hit the road to take on George Mason Friday, Feb. 24th in Fairfax, Va. as they continue their first cycle through EIVA opponents.
For more on Nittany Lion men’s volleyball, log onto www.GoPSUsports.com or follow the team on Twitter @PennStateMVBall
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