Penn State defeats George Mason to secure back-to-back EIVA Championships

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The top two seeds in the EIVA battled for the EIVA Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

George Mason and Penn State entered with a lot of familiarity. In the final week of the regular season, the teams met in Rec Hall for a two-game series. Penn State prevailed in both games, winning the first one in five sets and following it up with a four-set victory the next day.

The Nittany Lions took down the Patriots 3-1 to earn the EIVA Championship and clinch a berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The first set got off to about as good of a start as anyone could ask for, for a championship battle.

A long rally between both squads ended in a Toby Ezeonu block to get the first point on the board for the Nittany Lions.

The first set would go back and forth between the teams. George Mason pulled away slightly after a 3-0 run to take a 13-10 lead.

The Patriots would hold the lead until the end of the set despite Penn State fighting back to send it to the Deuce game.

After being tied at 24, George Mason put it away on a Sam Peters kill and a Lucas Little block to lock up the first set, 26-24.

“We’ve been here before. It happened just a week ago here against them,” Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said.

The blue and white responded in a big way after dropping the first set, getting out to an early 6-1 start.

The Patriots would claw their way back to take the lead 13-12 on a Jack Bolz kill.

However, that lead would not hold for long as the Nittany Lions got the next point on a block by Ezeonu and Michal Kowal and they would not look back.

Backed by powerful serving from Kowal and Michael Schwob, the Nittany Lions took the second set 25-20.

“Usually, coaches are happy with two or three errors per ace and they went 12 aces for 13 errors. I find that hard to believe that any team is going to lose with that kind of service game,” George Mason coach Jay Hosack said.

Both teams continued to battle in the third set.

The big-time players continued to step up for both teams. Bolz continued his dominance through the first three sets, racking up 20 kills, while the serves continued to rain in hard for the Nittany Lions.

Schwob and Kowal combined for four aces in the fourth set to give the blue and white a 2-1 lead, winning the set 25-22.

Momentum was all on the side of the Nittany Lions heading into the fourth set.

“I feed off the crowd… I play with a ton of emotion, good and bad,” Ezeonu said.

He did just that in the fourth set as Penn State closed in on the title.

The Nittany Lions continued to get better as the game went on, while the Patriots let things get away in the fourth and final set.

It was a concerted effort by everyone on the side of the blue and white that led to a fourth set that got to 20-11, including a career-tying 16th kill for Toby Ezeonu.

“He hits at angles that we don’t ever really see,” Hosack said.

The fans could feel it, the coaches could feel and the players could feel it. Penn State was five points away from another EIVA Championship.

The match was put away by Kerr, the EIVA Tournament MVP, an ace that trickled over the net and fell on the side of the Patriots to give the Nittany Lions a 25-16 fourth-set victory and a 3-1 victory in the EIVA Championship Game.

The victory marked the 36th EIVA Title in program history and the 23rd under coach Pavlik.

The Nittany Lions await the NCAA Tournament Selection Show to see who they will face in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Long Beach, California.

Andrew Deal is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email asd5765@psu.edu