Emails from Mark

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #20 (5/11/2011

Greetings from 207 Rec Hall!

After the EIVA finals our event staff par excellence was getting ready for the NCAA’s! We knew that #1-seeded Ohio State had defeated #2-seeded Loyola in four games and were in while we waited for the beginning of the MPSF final between #1-seeded USC and #7-seeded UCSB. USC had been ranked #1 in the coaches’ poll for most of the year and had defeated #8-seeded UCLA and #4-seeded UCI. UCSB had arrived in the MPSF final by defeating #2-seeded BYU in four games at BYU then #6-seeded Long Beach in four games. They then continued their improbable run by defeating USC in five to gain the automatic berth from the MPSF.

The next day we were expecting the at-large berth to go to USC. Many of the uninformed masses think that the NCAA men’s championship committee has little-to-no structure when it regards awarding the at-large berth. Many of the uninformed masses believe all a team needs is a west coast zip code. That is so far from the truth. Just so you are not part of the uninformed mass here are the criteria used by the committee as taken from http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/champ_handbooks/volleyball/2011/11_nc_mvolleyball.pdf. (Page 9).

“Automatic qualifiers will be determined by a method selected by each conference office. The remaining at-large team will be selected using the following criteria (in no priority order):

- Won-lost results;
- Head-to-head competition;
- Results versus non-conference opponents;
- Home and away results;
- Results against common opponents;
- Results against teams already qualified and other teams under consideration; and
- Eligibility and availability of student-athletes for NCAA championships.

All NCAA member institutions that sponsor intercollegiate men’s volleyball under the auspices of the intercollegiate athletics department will be considered for selection, provided that they are otherwise eligible in the division in which they hold membership.

Forfeits, as determined by a referee’s ruling, will be categorized as wins or losses.”

The committee uses these results and comes to a conclusion based on quantitative results. They also look at these criteria to seed the four teams in the championships. Thus the reason why we were number two and wearing white instead of number three and wearing blue was our win over UCSB. We were 2-1 vs the rest of the championship field while OSU was 1-1. We managed to draw a very formidable, but a very familiar opponent in the Ohio State Buckeyes. We had seen the best of each other and the worse of each other in our two matches this year. They impressed us with their serving, blocking and defense and their fifth-year seniors were awfully good offensively. It was to be our Big Ten Championship match with the winner heading to the National Championship match.

In the meantime, while Jen James, Rachel Rito and Cody Ritchey were readying Rec Hall, our team was immersed in final exams. We were trying to find time on Monday and Tuesday to practice with as many bodies as we could get without affecting their finals. Also, USA Volleyball was in Rec Hall with a training group from which they would draw a team to represent the USA at the Pan-Am games and World University Games this summer. Rec Hall seemed to be the center of the volleyball universe that week. You couldn’t go anywhere in Rec hall without bumping into someone who was there for volleyball! It was great!

Wednesday rolled around and the NCAA itinerary began. From that point on a team’s NCAA schedule is controlled by the NCAA. Sometimes teams new to this struggle with it; luckily for us our upperclassmen do a great job of letting the new guys know what to expect. It is important for a team to roll with the punches and to truly embrace every part of the NCAA experience: from the practices and ESPN meetings to when and where you can be and at what time. One of the best events of the week is the NCAA banquet. It was held in the Mount Nittany Room in Beaver Stadium. It is a room facing south with floor to ceiling windows looking at Mount Nittany. In my humble opinion, it adds so much more to the banquet than a typical banquet room could ever hope to give its honorees. Not only was the food great but the AVCA All-Americans were honored. PSU’s Dennis Del Valle and Edgardo Goas were second teamers while teammate Joe Sunder was honored as a first team selection. The NCAA also announces the Elite 88 award. This award is given in each of the NCAA’s 88 championships to the participating student-athlete (other than freshmen) with the highest GPA of all participating student-athletes. PSU’s Ryan Wolf was honored for his 3.821 GPA in accounting with the award! After the dinner and awards, everyone was invited outside into the stadium to watch the NCAA men’s volleyball video on Beaver Stadium’s big screens! It is always a very well done video.

We then met at the Atherton Hotel. It was the headquarter hotel for the teams and we decided to keep the team there Wednesday evening. We took a look at some video and refined our game plan to everyone then headed to bed.

Thursday, as you know by now, wasn’t a great performance by the Nittany Lions. A lot of the reason for that was the play of the Buckeyes. They turned the points they needed to turn when they had to have them. We competed very hard. It was a mark of this team to play hard even when down. We would give up a lead only to come back and tie but then see it slip away. We had a great crowd behind us and they never let up through any point of that match. However, our offense couldn’t stabilize against the very good block and defense of the Buckeyes. They moved on to the finals against UCSB who continued a playoff run unprecedented in my memory by defeating USC in four games. Then our Big Ten brethren won their first NCAA championship by defeating UCSB in an exciting five game match Saturday evening. I am so very happy for Pete Hanson, Tim Embaugh and Sean Byron! They have worked so hard for so long to bring a championship back to their locker room and I am thrilled for them.

I am sad that I won’t be able to coach this group of young men again! Sure all but two return next fall but losing Alan Mars and Dennis Del Valle make it different. I can’t say enough about Alan who was asked to do just about everything for the program in his career short of holding a lightning rod on the roof of Rec Hall and he not only did it willingly but with an enthusiasm and desire to better himself and the program. Dennis has set quite the standard for future PSU liberos. No doubt many of you have your own memory of a play that you witnessed Dennis making. I have the memories of those plays PLUS the ones he made in the practice gym where no one was watching. If you haven’t already done so check out the PSU MVB photo gallery (http://www.gopsusports.com/view.gal?id=93038) and the pictures of the semifinals where there is an awesome Mark Selders photograph of Dennis making a play among others. That one is soooo Dennis! We will miss both of these guys!

I have so many people that need to be recognized for their efforts to make the 2011 NCAA Championships the huge success that it was. From Jenn, Rachel and Cody to Alan Knipe and Jeff Moser of USA Volleyball to Kim-Li Kimmel, head coach of the State College Boys’ Volleyball team. Kim-Li organized her State College HS tournament and ran it in the IM Building with close to 40 teams participating on Friday. This helped make the week into the Men’s and Boys’ Volleyball Extravaganza that it was. Kudos go to Frank Guadagnino, Jim “Yak” Wittler and Harry Kauffman for putting together the PSU MVB Alumni “Final Fore” Golf Outing on Friday. There were 16 foursomes hacking around the course and telling immense lies (all except the Women With Attitude foursome-they were the best of the tournament…). The longest drive award again went to Basil Sparlin for his “drive” from Honolulu to State College just as it did in 2002! I can’t tell you how much our team and I appreciate you all coming back to support us and always being a part of this program. Thank so much!

One other very important group that needs to be duly recognized is my staff of Colin and Jay! I can’t tell you how much they have their fingerprints over the success we have had the last two years! They make coming into the office a lot of fun! Being in the gym with them is a great learning experience and, heck, they make those long bus rides downright, ummm, bearable! I don’t know if sitting on the same bench with me is as rewarding and enjoyable as me sitting on the bench with them but I can’t say enough about their efforts. They are great coaches, terrific friends and even finer men!

Finally, all of this wouldn’t be happening without the unwavering support of our Director of Athletics, Tim Curley. He even braved the crowd and said hello at the golf outing luncheon to the group and was in the stands for the matches. We have a lot of great people in this athletic department and he is right at the top of the list! So if you do get a chance somewhere down the road to thank Tim please let him know you appreciate what he does for volleyball here. Russ and I appreciate his efforts!

So now it is on to planning for the 2012 NCAA Championships to be held at USC. I look forward to this fall with a new crop of freshmen and seeing what we can become. All of us truly are aware and appreciative that you are on the journey with us! If we can have a quick break to rest, refresh and reload then let’s bring on next season!

Thanks for everything you have done for us!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the 2011 EIVA Champions

 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #19 (5/11/2011)

Greetings from 207 Rec Hall!

It is a quiet afternoon here. Looking out my office window the line of graduates-to-be moves forward to have pictures taken at the Nittany Lion shrine, it is tough to believe that the school year is over. The calendar seems to flip forward faster than it did even last year.

Our 2011 season is now in the books and I apologize for not touching base with you after the EIVA championships were won; however, it was quite the beehive of excitement and preparation around here as Rec Hall was readying herself for hosting the NCAA’s. But before I get into that, let me give you my thoughts on the EIVA’s here.

Going into the EIVA semifinal against Rutgers-Newark I was nervous. I believed that the Scarlet Raiders this year matched up with us better than any other team in the EIVA. They had an outstanding setter and several hitters with some live arms who could serve the ball extremely well. On top of that five out of our seven games were decided by two or three points! I knew it was not going to be an easy EIVA semifinal match.

Game one seemed to ease my concerns as we jumped out to an 11-2 lead and didn’t look back! We talked about Rutgers getting over the butterflies in game one and we needed to be ready in game two. Unfortunately, game two started with our most frustrating stretch of play the entire year as we went down 0-11 on five unforced errors, three Rutgers’ blocks, two Rutgers’ kills and a Rutgers ace. (You may insert “Partridge in a pear tree here also!). We then settled out…much like Rutgers did in game one but we couldn’t close that gap. In game three, we felt we would settle down and our offense was going to get in-synch and it did as we hit .423 and we took eight more swings than did Rutgers. But it wasn’t until a Nick Turko ace put us up 19-11 did I feel that we had control of the game and when Rutgers served the ball out of bounds to end the match did I feel relieved and ready to move on to face Springfield in the EIVA Championship match. That 25-14, 16-25, 25-16, 25-19 match was the toughest “easiest” match of which I’ve ever been part. I mean when one looks at the scores it can be said that outside of game two we had our way with Rutgers…and maybe that was true; however, it certainly didn’t feel like that on the bench! Rutgers had a great year with some outstanding seniors. We tip our hat to them and their effort this year.

Springfield had a great year. They play very hard for Coach Charlie Sullivan and we knew that we would have to worry about three of their guys: middle hitters Cal Palumbo and Greg Falcone and opposite Alberto Bravo. Our servers would have to consistently knock their offense off the net to limit the effectiveness of Palumbo and Falcone while our block would need to be aware of Bravo and get as many hands in front of him as possible. If we couldn’t knock their offense off the net the games were going to be close.

Game one had us get off to another great start as we stuff Bravo’s first swing and then gain a 17-9 lead but Springfield kept fighting like they have been doing all year and we closed it out with a 25-20 win. The talk on the bench between games centered on our start in game two. We felt we had Springfield on their heels and we didn’t want to have a Rutgers-Newark game two start this time. We wanted to have a start that would send the message to Springfield that we weren’t going to give them any easy points. After a kill by Ryan Wolf gave us the lead of 17-9 again we were in the driver’s seat. In this game we didn’t let Springfield get back in as we closed out the win 25-14.

Game three showed why Springfield was in the EIVA final. They weren’t giving up without a fight and they had the lead on us until we tied it at 20-20. Even then they didn’t wilt. They had one game point on us that Sunder put away then he rattled off another while serving and Wolf ended the 2011 EIVA season with his kill for a 26-24 win.

Springfield will no doubt be in the running for the inaugural NCAA Division III National Championship next year. They, along with NYU and Juniata, will be leading the charge for that honor and will be leaving the EIVA. We say thank you to all of those institutions for helping move the EIVA in the direction we’re headed and wish all of them the best of luck as they pursue their own NCAA honors!

I’ll close this for now and come back to you with another issue shortly!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the 2011 EIVA Champions
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #18 (4/16/2011)

Greetings from route 30 west in Western Ohio!

The Nittany Lions finished the 2011 regular season with a barn-burner of a match at IPFW. The Nittany Lions won 20-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-12.

After last evening’s match I just wanted to see the guys compete hard. Every team has a point in a season where they question themselves about something. It really is about how you learn, forget and start again. We didn’t have a very good pass-and-serve session this morning until we go them going with a controlled six-on-six drill. I was hopeful that we would be ready.

Game one began with PSU down1-9! It was IPFW’s senior night and we had talked about the energy and effort they would come out with…and, boy, did they show us! It seemed as if every swing we took they either stuffed or they deflected up into the middle of their court and then they were putting their swings away. They were also serving the ball really, really well. Our passers were on our heels just trying to touch the ball let alone control it. Everything was going IPFW’s way and we certainly were battling not only them but our own frustration. It would have been easy for us to make wholesale changes but we wanted these guys to battle and I didn’t want to take them off the hook. We started to play slightly better and found ourselves serving down only 20-22! We made a dig and had a chance to close to one but an IPFW block ended that attempt. That was the closest we would come and after an IPFW kill we were down one 20-25.

Game two seemed to be one where every time I looked at the scoreboard we would be down by two or three points but yet we kept climbing back to tie it but could never take the lead. IPFW got separation to go up 15-19 and they kept surging. We couldn’t sustain any type of run and when an IPFW kill hit the floor for a 19-25 win we were limping off to the locker room down 0-2 and questioning ourselves.

There are times when the best things said in the break between games come from the team themselves. They realized they were frustrated but, in so many G-rated words, they challenged each other to just play like we had been practicing. The staff just reminded them of what we knew IPFW was doing. The rest was up to them.

Game three had us up 8-5 after some good serving from Scott Kegerreis. We had also inserted Ryan Wolf and both subs had started to settle things down. We stretched the lead to 16-10 and really just sided out for a 25-20 win. The IPFW block and serving seemed to come back down to earth and our offense was started to get in sync as our passers started to give Eddie the ball in-system. Now would we continue to sustain our effort and our attitude or would IPFW force us to question ourselves. We fully expected the next game to be the best effort of IPFW. We talked about matching and raising IPFW’s effort.

Game four was tight as neither team could pull away. At 16-16 we managed to gain a little edge to 18-16! We benefitted from a couple of IPFW hitting errors to go up 22-18 and sided-out for a 25-22 win. Our enthusiasm seemed to be contagious and our serving was knocking IPFW’s offense off the net. There were times during that game where IPFW’s defense seemed to be keeping everything we hit off the floor. The good thing was that we were staying patient and didn’t let that phase us. We kept swinging aggressively and Joe Sunder came up some big swings. We were on our way to our fourth fifth game of the season with an aggressive enthusiasm that really made the team look like it was having fun!

Game five had us gain a 9-5 lead, but in true IPFW fashion they came right back to make it 9-9. At 10-10, we went on a three point run for a 13-10 lead with Nick Turko serving. We seem to have Turko serving late in games and he has been delivering and tonight he gave us opportunities to turn points with his serving and we did. At 14-12, an IPFW hitting error closed out game five and the match for us at 15-12.

After surviving a really hot start by IPFW, we settled down and really started to compete. We got great contributions from subs in Wolf, Kegerreis and Hendries and turned our frustration and doubt into enthusiasm and extreme effort! It was a good win for us. Now we get to rest next weekend as the EIVA starts the playoffs. The match-ups are #7 NYU at #2 GMU and #6 Juniata at #3 Springfield. Our half of the bracket is #5 Saint Francis visiting #4 Rutgers-Newark. So next Saturday evening we will know the other three teams coming to Rec Hall for the EIVA semifinals on Thursday, April 28th.

Another regular season is in the books and I am very proud of the results this team had through the season. If someone would have told me in October we would be 22-6 with being upset only once I would have jumped at that. It really is a credit to the leadership and drive of this group of young men. Now, let’s get some rest and get ready for the fun part of the year: the playoffs! I’ll be back to you soon! Have a great week!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #17 (4/16/2011)

Greetings from our home away from home in Fort Wayne, IN: The Hyatt Suites!

The Nittany Lions lost to the Ball State Cardinals tonight 23-25, 21-25, 22-25 in the Worthen Arena. The Cardinals always play well here at home and tonight was no exception. We seemed to lack the desire to match their effort level on all of our three contacts. I am disappointed with our performance tonight but we have the opportunity to wrap up the year with a good showing tomorrow night against IFPW!

Game one had Ball State up 6-12 and we had not found any rhythm to our offense but we started to settle in with our serving and our point scoring and wound up tying the score at 14. Unfortunately, the only three real points we gave up from that point on were two unforced hitting errors and a BSU kill. We were down 20-24 when a Comfort kill was followed by two Cardinal hitting errors to close to 23-24. After a timeout a Ball State tip went over our three-man block and we couldn’t pick it up for a 23-25 loss.

Game two had us up 12-6 and playing well but a foot-fault on one of our serves was followed by a Cardinal stuff on a poor set and a PSU hitting error and another Cardinal stuff making the score 12-10. From that point on we struggled to maintain control of the game. From 17-14 BSU sent on an 11-4 run to close out game two 21-25.

Game three had us down 2-6 but we gained a 12-11 lead and had a swing to go up 13-11 but BSU stuffed that swing to tie at 12. We were tied at 18 and I thought we would see our guys just compete as we have done all year in situations like this but three uncharacteristic unforced hitting errors helped the Cardinals secure the 22-25 win.

It was a frustrating match because we were staying close and getting streaks of points but so were the Cardinals. Our serving was the best part of our match, yet our passing wasn’t crisp and our offense seemed to make errors at key moments in the match. After our practices this week we had expected so much more.

Tomorrow we get the chance to end on a high note as we take on the IPFW Mastodons. No doubt Coach Arnie Ball will be saying the same thing to his troops about us. I fully expect IFPW to play tough in their gym with a noisy crowd supporting them. We’ll see if we can come back from tonight and just worry about our next contact. It will not be easy. I’ll be back to you from the bus tomorrow as we head back to Happy Valley!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #16 (4/16/2011)

Greetings from Fort Wayne, IN!

We are loading the bus for our trip down to Muncie to take on the Ball State Cardinals tonight. This is the last regular season weekend of the 2011 season and it has certainly flown by! So let’s talk about last weekend when we hosted the Ohio State Buckeyes.

It was our second meeting with our Big Ten brethren and it was being televised live over the Big Ten Network. The Buckeyes got us in three games at their place earlier in February. They are a team with great senior leadership and are capable of playing very, very good volleyball. We also knew we were going to have to pass the ball well from some pretty physical servers. Above all of this, the Nittany Lions had practiced very well in the week leading up to this match and Jay, Colin and I were looking forward to this match up to see where we really were.

Before we got to the match; however, Harry and Sue Kauffman and the PSU MVB Booster Club hosted our annual senior get-together. This year it was a brunch at the Nittany Lion Inn where a total of about 80 people celebrated the careers of seniors Alan Mars and Dennis Del Valle. It was an outstanding brunch and Dennis and Alan spoke about their careers here. We will miss them both next year as they move on with their futures. I really believe they felt the appreciation from our boosters and their teammates that morning.

We then left the Nittany Lion Inn and walked over to Rec Hall to pass and serve and get ready for the Buckeyes. The team seemed to be in great frame of mind. I sensed that they were really looking forward to simply competing against a very good team.

Game one was a game where I thought we had an uneven performance especially from our serving. We made eight service errors but at one point I mentioned to Jay and Colin that I thought we were really close to serving well. We did get early separation on a serving run by Sunder but the Buckeyes wouldn’t let us run away from them. We never quit grinding against them and we ended up winning game one 25-19.

Game two had the Buckeyes really turn up their serving. They simply served better than we could pass and once they got the lead their serving kept us from closing the gap. It also seemed to me that we backed off with our aggressiveness and we started to encourage the guys to regain their physicality. OSU prevented any runs by us and closed out game two 18-25.

Coming out of the locker room I wish I could have said that I sensed a difference from our team but I was still apprehensive about how we would come out in game three. We started playing pretty clean and that’s when I noticed our guys embracing that competition against a good team. We gained some separation from Sunder’s serving again in the late teens and when a Mars kill ended game three 25-19 some good things were happening.

Game four began with a fully charged crowd. It was the first time the home crowd had seen us play at a high level of excitement and effort and they were drawn into the match with us! We came out playing well and when Goas was done with nine serves we had a 13-4 lead and never looked back. Alan Mars and Tom Comfort came up with some big stuff blocks and we kept our foot to the floor. The Buckeyes scored one real point in nine service terms but committed four serving errors and we sided out five times. Turko went back and finished the game with three tough serves. Match point was a great rally but when Sunder went off the top of the block no Buckeye could chase it down and we closed out with a 25-9 win.

Our serving did eventually get hot and our block also started to take its toll on OSU. We were creating point scoring opportunities and our offense was doing a very good job of converting them. Now the Buckeyes are not a team who get beat 25-9 but they have been travelling a great deal this year…much like us last year…and I have no doubt that when they get the chance to rest and refocus they will be a force in the post-season.

I also have to mention that Alan Mars had one of the best senior night matches of a senior in a long time. He didn’t have a ton of stats but his blocking and serving led us to some key points and kept the momentum going our way. He was an easy choice for the Mike Anderson “We Are” Player of the Match. The ovation he received when we got him out of the match from his home crowd was absolutely appreciated!

Now we have two matches to take of this weekend. Ball State in about four hours and then IPFW tomorrow evening at 7 PM. Where did this regular season go? I’ll be back to you folks on the ride back up to Fort Wayne this evening!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #15 (3/26/2011)

Greetings from Parsippany, NJ!

Tonight was the final regular season EIVA road game. We defeated Rutgers-Newark 25-22, 25-22, 28-26 to go to 9-0 in the EIVA Tait Division. We have one match left and that will be at home against George Mason next Saturday at 7 PM. The win this weekend enable us to clinch the EIVA Tait title by just winning one game of our match next weekend! However, this team would like to go undefeated through this EIVA schedule.

We knew that Rutgers-Newark would be tough. They have some great arms and can bring some heat with their serving. We felt we had to ride out their streaks of hot play…and they can be hot…and put ourselves in a position where a streak of our own can provide the separation we would need. I didn’t anticipate any short games or a short match at all. We had talked about being in for the long haul with this match. On top of all of this, Rutgers was celebrating senior night for their three seniors. They would be playing with something extra. We needed to match that.

Game one was tied at 13 when Rutgers went on a serving streak to take a 13-16 lead, but the Nittany Lions went up 20-19 with a mini-run of our own. I was hoping we could hold Rutgers while we could get another point or two. After a Sunder kill moved the score to 21-20 a Rutgers hitting error and a Turko ace gave us the late separation for which I had been hoping. After a Rutgers kill, Tom Comfort put the ball away off the Rutgers block for a 25-22 win.

Game two was tied at 15 and after a Rutgers ace; Sunder was suffering from his stomach bug and needed to come out. In went Ryan Wolf and with Mars serving we went up 19-17. Rutgers wouldn’t go away and tied at 22 but Turko put a ball away and Rutgers committed a hitting error. We again had the late separation at 24-21and after a Rutgers sideout Ryan Wolf put away game point for a 25-22 win.

Game three was like the first two and neither team was playing well enough to pull away. With the game at 18-18, Rutgers scored three to take a 21-18 lead. I sat there wondering if we could do it again and just out-compete them for a win. We weren’t playing great but we were working hard and competing from play to play. Two kills from Olsen and a Rutgers hitting error answered my musings. We were at 21-21. Rutgers served game point three times. The first two were service errors and the final one was answered by a Comfort kill. With Turko serving Rutgers hit another ball out of bounds and then Turko closed the match with his second ace! We did do it again.

The match was what we expected: tough opponent, streaks which we needed to survive and then answer, opportunities that came with pressure at the end of games. We handled all of that better than we played the game. If we had let a few balls go out of bounds and blocked better it would have been easier but we didn’t let this one get away! Now we need one win to 25 against GMU next weekend to have the EIVA’s at home!

Sunder hung in there well but Wolfie came in and hit .667 and passed well. Dennis dug 13 balls while our serving kept them, at crucial times, limited. We also aced them six times! Was it a match I would use to teach the game, no; however, to show how to flat-out compete? Absolutely!

So we head back to get ready for the Patriots. I hope we see you in Rec Hall next Saturday. We could use your help in that match!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #14 (3/26/2011)

Greetings from The Hyatt Regency Princeton!

Tonight the Nittany Lions defeated the Princeton Tigers 25-21, 25-16, 25-16 in Dillon gym. There was another first tonight as the Princeton Pep Band was in attendance and it created one of the best environments I have ever been in when we have travelled to the Tigers!

The guys had been making a concerted effort to get off to better starts. We have been trying to simplify it to: Good Contacts = Good Start. I really wanted to see how their work would carry over in tonight’s match. We didn’t have Ian Hendries who we left at home to rehab his ankle and we lost Joe Sunder in warm-ups also. Joe had been sick on Wednesday but practiced well on Thursday. However, he suffered a set-back during warm-ups so we kept him down. This made me even more curious to see how we would come out.

Game one had us up 6-2 on the strength of Ryan Wolf’s serving. The lead was stretched to 18-9 when some unforced hitting errors and a couple of serving errors seemed to help the Tigers. They closed to 23-20 but that was as close as we let them get to us as a Mars kill ended game one 25-21.

Game two had us start out up 9-5. This time it was behind solid serving from Nick Turko. The next time it was Turko’s serve we were up 16-12. When Nick was done serving we had a 23-13 lead. A Comfort kill ended the game 25-16.

Game three had Tor Covello take over the offense with Scott Kegerreis as his opposite. Another good start ensued as we had the 9-6 lead. We were up 17-13 and after Kegerreis was done with his serving term the score stood at 21-14. A Peter Russell kill ended the match at 25-16.

We passed and served the ball pretty well tonight. I thought Princeton did a good job of serving. They only missed eight serves so we had to pass well. Our .414 hitting percentage for the match was a by-product of that good passing.

We also had a great contingent of PSU MVB fans in Dillon Gym. I had the chance to say hello to PSU MVB Alums Ron Carper, Jose Rubayo, Fred Gozum, Ken Steadman, Keith Kowal and Travis Foltz. It was another great example of PSU fans and their great support of their teams! Princeton had their pep band but our fans banded their pep for us in Dillon Gym tonight. Thank you!

Tomorrow we head up to Newark to take on the Rutgers-Newark Scarlet Raiders. They beat us here last year and they have just returned from a four game loss to Pepperdine where they lost a deuce game, won a deuce game and were at 20-20 in Malibu. They definitely have some physical players and can serve well. No doubt they will serve even better in their home gym so our passers need to keep us in-system as much as possible or it could be a long night.

I’ll fill you as we head back to State College on Route 80!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #13 (3/26/2011)

Greetings from the second seat behind the driver!

We are on the way to Princeton for our last EIVA away trip of the season. We take on Princeton tonight at 7 PM in Dillon Gym and then head to Newark to take on Rutgers tomorrow at 7 PM.

We defeated the Ball State Cardinals (25-18, 36-34, 25-17) and the IFPW Mastodons (25-19, 25-23, 25-22) last weekend at Rec Hall.

It was great to be back home after six consecutive away matches over a three week period. We had last faced the Cardinals in our third match of the season at the Outrigger Invitational in early January. We were prepared for to face a team better than the one we saw two-and-half months ago! They have four seniors which we needed to be constantly aware of.

Game one had us in control after an early run but BYU came back to close to within two. PSU managed to pull away for a 25-18 win.

Game two was one of the most exciting games we had played this year. It looked like we were in control with an 18-11 lead but with the help of a few PSU errors and some inspired play Ball State caught us and forced us into an extended game. We had a couple of game points which they fought off. Then they had a couple of game points which we fought off until finally we closed them out 36-34.

Game three was much like game one where we were in control and we never let them back into the game for a 25-17 win.

The Nittany Lions started to iron out our consistency…except for the BSU comeback in game two…but more importantly still showed their resiliency after a game which we should have closed out easily forced us into a very tense situation. It would have been easy for us to try to do more in game three but we continued to play at a good level that kept getting better through the game.

At the end of game three a Cardinal outside hitter had a very tight set and he attempted to hit the ball off the top of our block. He took a pretty heavy swing at it and missed our block. It hit the wall above our locker room door…on the fly. Many of our guys and many of our fans (who stuck around for an Ice Cream Social hosted by the PSU MVB Booster Club) said it was the farthest ball they had seen hit in Rec Hall. From those who have been around a little longer…it wasn’t even close to the record! In the 1986 NCAA finals between USC and Pepperdine Trojan outside hitter Adam Johnson tried to execute the same shot…only with a little more strength. His ball wound up in the upper southwest corner of Rec Hall. It still is one of the most impressive balls I have ever seen hit in Rec Hall!

The next night the IPFW Mastodons came into town as head coach Arnie Ball was looking for win #500! Now Arnie is a very good friend of ours and I could only hope that we would courteously make sure that his 500th career win would occur in front of his home crowd. Those folks who know Arnie really well would no doubt celebrate it appropriately!

This night was a night when Dennis Del Valle decided that he would dictate the play of both teams. He passed their toughest servers very well and any of their swings that our block didn’t stop it seemed Dennis controlled. All I could think during this match is that if water covered 70% of the earth Dennis covered the remaining 30%!

Offensively, we weren’t really good but we managed to hang on to the leads we managed to get in the middle of all three games. IPFW will always play hard and they didn’t disappoint but we managed to hang on to take the match.

Our lone loss of the weekend came against Ball State when middle blocker Ian Hendries came down on a blocker’s foot and sprained his ankle. Senior Alan Mars came in and gave us what we needed. Our crack athletic trainer, Kelly Saxton and superb team doc, Dr. Bobbi Millard will do their best to get him back as quickly as possible but in the meantime we’ll just keep doing what we do!

Also, many thanks to Sue and Harry Kauffman for organizing the Ice Cream Social on the mezzanine after the Ball State match. A Nittany Lion win followed by PSU Creamery Ice Cream…it doesn’t get any better!

Next week we travel to Princeton and Rutgers-Newark. I’ll be back to you after those matches!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #12 (3/14/2011)

Greetings from Gate F13 of the Philadelphia Airport!

The Nittany Lions are en route to State College after last evening’s loss to Long Beach State 21-25, 21-25, 29-27, 20-25.

The final match of the Long Beach Active Ankle Tournament Presented by Woodfin Hotel Cypress was one to which I was looking forward. Not only because of the competition but due to the strides this team had taken in the last four weeks. I was more interested in what would happen in the third match in four days against the most physical…and probably best serving team…we faced.

Game one had us playing okay, not great, and tied at 17 when the 49’ers sided out and then benefitted from a PSU hitting error and an overpass kill and that was the separation they needed. We couldn’t close the score and a 49’er sideout ended game one 21-25. Against well-coached, physical teams a late game blink is tough to make up and we found that out in this game.

Game two had the 49’er serving raise their game while our passers did not. With the game tied at 4, Long Beach unleashed a barrage of tough serving that forced our offense off the net and allowed Long Beach to take advantage with their block and defense. The outscored us 10-4 to get to an 8-14 lead. However, the Nittany Lions didn’t seem to dwell on that run and we managed to close to 21-22 with our own run and timely blocking. We were not going down quietly! However, after a Long Beach sideout another PSU poor pass resulted in a 49’er kill and they ended game two with a block for a 21-25 win. I was hoping that we wouldn’t succumb to the mental fatigue that sometimes accompanies a valiant, but failed, comeback. The guys seemed to be very composed and convinced that they could turn this around and go five games!

Game three did not look promising. When Long Beach gets a lead they just go back to the service line and unload. If they get on a roll they can make it really tough for a team to close any deficit. They did just that and we took a timeout at 13-18. We talked about challenges and how this trip was full of them. We had to outscore Long Beach 12-5 to just have a chance to extend this match. It was very accurate to say this team faced several different challenges over the last three matches and some we overcame and some we didn’t BUT we never backed down from any of them…even when we came out of the timeout and were immediately aced. Yeah, I know: great timeout, coach! (Now we needed to outscore them 12-4 to have a shot!) Somehow, someway we started to put together some strings of good volleyball. Our passing righted itself and we started to turn some points as our serving started to yield some results and our defense started to give us some opportunities for swings. On top of that our blocking not only touched some of their attacks but came up with timely stuffs – like the one at 23-24 to tie by Turko and Olsen. After a Sunder kill, Turko and Goas stuffed a ball to send the match to game four with a 29-27 win.

Game four was tied at 16 when once again the Long Beach serve and block came alive. They pushed our offense off the net and converted with five stuff blocks from that point of the game to go on a 5-9 run for a 20-25 win. It was 20-21 then a 49’er sideout was followed by three of their five stuff blocks.

Our guys really fought and clawed their way through, not only this match, but the entire trip. Long time PSU MVB fan and alum Dave Kissinger remarked to me after the match that our team showed more determination and effort in the three matches than he had seen a PSU MVB show in quite a while. We are not going to be a sleek smooth-running Corvette. No, to be successful this team will have to embrace all the dependability, durability and stubbornness of a ’57 Chevy pick-up. I find myself thinking during matches, “Come on, come on…start up, start up…please!” and they crank through and keep moving. This is a fun team to be in the gym with as they are figuring out their strengths and weaknesses and working on both. We have eight matches left of the regular season. I am so excited for this group of guys as they are really starting to believe in one another and are working to keep getting better.

I need to thank all the PSU MVB friends, parents and alums who were in the stands for us at all three matches. They did bring a little bit of Rec Hall to us with their enthusiasm and support. It was great to see Luke Murray and Alicia Glass who are both in Anaheim with the USA National Team programs. Dan O’Dell, who was recently named second assistant coach for the UCLA Bruin women’s team and Matt Proper were at the matches as was Kevin Hodge. We also reconnected with Tom Van Horn from 1984 out here for the first time in a long time. They are all doing well.

We also took the time to educate our newer fans that the chant “Let’s Go Penn!” while appreciated isn’t exactly accurate. We are converting a region and with the results we achieved in this effort they are great students! “We Are…” rang out several times as did “Let’s Go State”. I can’t say thank you enough from our staff and our team. Our fans are the best!

I would also like to thank Coach Andy Read and staff for the great tournament and having us out there. Not only did he provide outstanding weather but he even through in an honest-to-goodness tsunami! Yes, from that horrific earthquake in Japan we were warned to stay off the So Cal beaches Friday morning. Luckily, for the area there was a two foot surge that caused minimal damage around the Long Beach area. Andy always finds ways to make our visit interesting.

Our programs are very similar and that is by no accident as I try to steal from Andy every possible opportunity. He is an outstanding coach, a quality and dear friend and even a better man. As I have often told him, the worst part about Long Beach is that it is 3000 miles away. I would like nothing more than to greet him and his team in two months in Rec Hall and welcome them to the NCAA Championships.

Now we get back home and back to classes. We have Ball State and IPFW visiting Rec Hall next weekend and we need to get over this week quickly and get back to the process of improving. Those two MIVA foes will give us enough of a challenge and we had better be ready for them. Have a great week and I’ll be back to you after those matches!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #11 (3/12/2011)

Greetings once again from the Woodfin Hotel in downtown Cypress, CA!

The Nittany Lions opened the Long Beach Active Ankle Classic Presented by Woodfin Hotel Cypress last evening with a 17-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-22 win over the UCSB Gauchos. Coming off the five game loss at UCLA on Wednesday the guys seemed to be in a great frame of mind and put together two very good practices the past two days.

Game one had us begin very sluggishly for our offense as UCSB was slowing us down and turning points for a 6-13 lead which we could never really cut into as game one wore on. However, if the guys were frustrated they weren’t showing it and after a Gaucho sideout ended game one 17-25 the bench was upbeat and confident.

Game two had the Nittany Lions come out on fire as we gained a 10-3 lead thanks to some terrific serving from Comfort and Goas. Our sideout offense was starting to click as we only failed to sideout on three of their twenty serves as we closed out the game on a Hendries kill 25-19.

Game three was what we had expected: a tight one with neither team pulling away. It was almost as if the first two games had the two teams dishing and taking the other’s best shots and figuring each other out. The game was tied at 17 when we managed to put together kills from Comfort and Turko and then at 22-20 Comfort came up with another kill to make it 23-20. We had been transitioning pretty well and we were making a good majority of our opportunities into points. Sunder ended game three with a kill for a 25-23 win.

Game four was going to test us. UCSB had been in three five gamers this year and were down going into game fours so there was no doubt we were going to get their best. We talked about taking this game as game one and not caring that we were up 2-1. There was some early streaking of points as we went two, they went three, we went three, they went four and somehow everything was tied up at 13 and eventually we were up 19-15. However, UCSB wasn’t going away…they’d been here before…and they tied at 19! It was time for the Tom Comfort Show as he bombed away with four consecutive kills to put us up 23-19! UCSB got two back but Comfort got us to match point with his last kill of the match and after a UCSB sideout Turko ended the match with his kill 25-22.

We played with the same poise and determination as we did against the Bruins on Wednesday; however, our execution was much better and we took advantage of our point-scoring opportunities. Any time you compete against a Rick McLaughlin-coached team you will need to minimize your errors and turn the points you can turn because his teams will play hard and not go away. This was a good win for us!

Then we watched the Lewis Flyers defeat the Long Beach 49’ers in five games. Anything can happen in men’s volleyball this year as Lewis played well down the stretch of that match. This may be the first time of us being at this tournament that the MPSF teams went 0-2 on the first night.

So tonight’s match with host Long Beach should be a good one. No doubt Coach Read will focus his fired-up and angry troops into a team that will fight all night long if they need to do that. I hope we are ready to go. This is the benefit of coming out here. We will learn something about ourselves as we face a team that will be desperate to win. Can we match their desperation? I know we are looking forward to it.

I’ll be back to you after the match!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #10 (3/10/2011)

Greetings from the Woodfin Hotel in downtown Cypress, CA!

The Nittany Lions are underway with our 2011 Spring Break trip. Tonight saw us fall in a tough match to the UCLA Bruins 23-25, 26-24, 20-25, 25-22, 17-19.

Venerable Pauley Pavilion is undergoing a facelift and will be closed for upwards of 12 months or so. Our match tonight was one of the last three before the oncoming refurbishment and we would have liked nothing else but to be the last EIVA team to win in that historical gym but the Bruins came up with one more play than we could come up with in this match.

Game one was tied at 7 and in retrospect it was a portent of things to come. UCLA had two straight points; sideouts were traded, we scored two points, they scored three in a row and we scored four in a row. It did indeed turn out to be match of streaks! We were up 15-14 when we scored five in a row for a 20-14 lead but the Bruins came back with seven straight for a 21-23 lead and there was no more streaking! The Bruins stole game one 23-25 in the same manner that we got but game one against them back in Hawaii with a let game streak!

Game two was a looming question mark. Could the guys keep looking toward the next play and put game one behind them? There were still streaks of points going on for both teams: PSU up 8-5, UCLA up 9-8, PSU 11-10, UCLA 14-11 then PSU 15-14. Then everyone seemed to settle in and we scored one real point as did the Bruins but we held on to a 26-24 win

Game three had PSU down 3-6. We did tie at 15 but UCLA responded and went up 22-17 and we couldn’t close that five point difference. UCLA was up 2-1 with that 25-20 win.

Game four may have been the start of both teams showing some consistency as neither team could put together more than two points in a row except for one four point Nittany Lion stretch to go from 10-11 to 14-11 and we managed to hold onto to that lead for a 25-22 win.

Game five was one of the most exciting of which we have been part in a long time. UCLA goes up 2-0 quickly and builds their lead to 5-2. We manage to take the 8-7 lead at the switch but the score was tied at 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 before UCLA put away two balls for the 17-19 win. There were some outstanding rallies as both teams scrambled and continued rallies that appeared to be over.

We had a great contingent of PSU fans, friends and family in Pauley and we would like to thank them for helping us out in that venerable arena. We will need them this weekend as well.

When the stats are reviewed it was not a match that should be used to teach the game but it could very well be a match that could teach every immeasurable competitive characteristic teams need to have to be successful. PSU MVB never let a poor play affect them. We never backed down from a deficit and we never stopped competing. Was it a match we should have won? An argument can be made for that statement; however, it was also a match which shouldn’t have been close…if you believe stats. The guys took a good step forward tonight and learned something more about themselves and how they want their team to respond.

We have two really tough matches coming up at the Long Beach Active Ankle Tournament where we face #6 UCSB and #7 Long Beach. Both teams are playing very well and we will need everything we learned tonight and then some for this weekend. It will be another great opportunity to learn more about ourselves and to battle had for as long it takes. We are looking forward to it.

I’ll be back to you with the update after the match on Friday.

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #9 (3/6/2011)

Greetings from Route 91 South!

We are heading out of Massachusetts after defeating the Springfield Pride 25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 25-19 and sharing dinner at the Red Rose Pizzeria with the Connecticut Valley Penn State Alumni Chapter.

Here’s what I will see for the next six hours!

We expected Springfield to give us everything we could handle. We told the guys that we just had to keep plugging away and making our next contact the most important. If we could do that we would force the Pride to play at a high level for a long time and we would we get our chances to create separation.

Game one had the crowd of 1000+ loud and rocking. We were down 16-17 and Sunder went on a three point run to give us a 19-17 lead. We traded sideouts until game point when we dug a ball and Sunder put it away for a 25-23 win. We had made six service errors and it seemed we weren’t very comfortable with our serving. Springfield was passing well and putting balls away.

Game two was tied at 19 when Springfield’s block got a couple and their defense turned a point and they sided out to gain a 22-25 win. We missed four serves but started to look a bit more comfortable with our serving but the Pride was passing the ball well and had some confidence in their ability to sideout. We needed to make it a little tougher on them.

Game three was tied at 14 when Jace Olsen came through with two aces sandwiched between two transition kills by the Nittany Lions. That gave us the separation we were looking for and our sideout game took us that win 25-21. Our serving was settling in and we were becoming more physical at the net. Defensively, our block was doing a very nice job and we were starting to slow down their offense.

Game four, I was sure, was going to be a tough one. The crowd was intent on pulling their team through and we were going to have our hands full. We still didn’t look comfortbable as I would have liked for us to look but we had control of the match and didn’t want it to slip away. We were tied at 10 and after Turko’s serve and Goas’s serve we were up 16-12. Their crowd was becoming more muted and the Nittany Lion faithful were being heard more and more! Our serving was finally yielding some results by pushing the Pride’s offense off the net and we were digging balls and converting them. We were up 24-17 when a mini-run by Springfield made it 24-19 but a service error ended the match 25-19.

We looked like a pitcher who couldn’t get comfortable on a strange mound and just gritted it out. As the match wore on we found our groove a little and our block and defense started to get us points. The guys never showed any frustration with our serving and were patient with our offense. It was a good win from a concentrated, gut-it-out, perspective. I have no doubt we will be seeing Springfield again down the road in April.

After the match we met the Connecticut Valley Penn State Alumni Chapter at the Red Rose Pizzeria. Thanks to Terry Schnure for organizing it and allowing us to share some time with Nittany Lions before we got on the bus. We had a great time seeing old friends from last year’s event and meeting new ones this night. It was fun for us all! Thanks to them once more!

We have seven EIVA matches under our belt with just three more left…where did the season go? We head out to California on Tuesday for matches at UCLA and Long Beach and we’ll also take on UCSB at Long Beach. We should find out a little bit more about this group of Nittany Lions. I’ll be back to you from Long Beach next week! Have a great rest of the weekend!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #8 (3/4/2011)

Greetings from Route 80 East!

We are on our way to Springfield, MA to take on the Springfield Pride tomorrow at 5 PM. I wanted to give you some thoughts on our win last Saturday over the George Mason Patriots 25-19, 25-19, 25-20. It was a very good road win for us and continued the effort and focus that the team exhibited in the win over Saint Francis.

The build-up of this match reminded me of past PSU – GMU matches where both teams seemed to be ready for a knock-down, drag-out fight. They were 6-0 and we were 5-0. It was a battle for first place in the Tait Division.

We seemed to be in a great frame of mind on the bus and during the hour of passing and serving. The staff was pleased with the reaction of the guys to the scouting report but the true test was going to be in front of a large and loud crowd with a fired-up Mason team on the other side of the net.

Game one was very evenly played to 16-16 but from that point on we outscored them 9-3 for a 26-19 win. We were playing at a pretty good level. Our sideout game kept the pressure on GMU to score whenever they had a chance…and we didn’t give them very many chances. Defensively, we were digging the balls that made it past our block. Offensively, Edgardo was giving all the hitters some very good swings and was varying the offense enough to keep the Mason block off-balance.

Game two started with Tom Comfort serving us to a 4-0 lead. PSU continued with the solid play and slowly but surely the crowd was beginning to quiet. We managed to keep the separation through the entire game and GMU couldn’t string any stretches of points together. PSU took game two 25-19.

Game three was tied at 4 but we managed to gain separation; however, GMU wouldn’t go quietly and closed to 17-16 but we stuffed a couple of balls and turned a point in transition while our sideout game stayed at a high level. We ended the match with a 25-20 win.

We were very focused and everyone contributed. Tom Comfort and Joe Sunder led the way offensively but everyone had an outstanding match. Dennis passed and defended very well. Not only did Edgardo run the offense well he had one of his best blocking and defensive matches. The middles worked hard and seemed to be in front of every swing the Patriots took! It was a terrific team effort. We now sit atop the Tait Division with four EIVA matches left. We really want to clinch the home court advantage for the EIVA semi’s and finals and we took a good step toward that goal.

The environment of the match was incredible. The gym was packed to standing room only and after the completion of the match we were engulfed by fans and alums of both programs. I managed to catch up with former GMU players and PSU fans. Our guys were asked by several youngsters to have their pictures taken and for their autographs. It speaks volumes of the relationship between the two programs. On the court, the top priority is to compete hard and battle. Once the match is over there is a true respect for each other that has carried over for years.

It is because of this that even with all of this build-up our match was the undercard of the day. The headliner was the battle between the PSU MVB Alumni and the GMU MVB Alumni. First serve was whistled at 1 PM. Former PSU MVG (Most Valuable Geezer) Frank Guadagnino who helped to organize the Alumni match had to have six stitches in his pinky when a swing by former GMU All-American Willie Hughes caused the tip of Guad’s pinky to bend back and tear his skin in the first joint! Guad had to leave and word is the PSU play couldn’t overcome the loss of our fearless leader. GMU took the Alumni match in four games! But don’t worry, we are working to host PSU – GMU II next season.

It was great seeing everyone there to support the Nittany Lions! We now have to take care of the Pride tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have a fully charged laptop for the trip back and the update!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys
 

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #7 (2/26/2011)

Greetings from Route 322 East!

We are headed down to Fairfax for tonight’s match against the Patriots of George Mason. It is a good time to update you on our 22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-18 win at Saint Francis on Wednesday evening.

We had faced the Red Flash in the South Gym about a month ago and won in four games but we were impressed with some of the young players that they had on the floor. The challenge facing the Nittany Lions was simply to return to the type of team which we wanted and needed to be. We needed to be a team which created and maintained our own energy and focus during the match and gave opponents very little easy points to keep them within reach. The guys discussed this amongst themselves in the days after the Lees-McRae match and decided to move in that direction. This effort would be made more difficult by going on the road to Saint Francis where their fans can be boisterous and loud. It would be a good test of this team’s resolve.

Game one had Saint Francis playing very well as neither team could take any advantage for separation. The crowd was loud and one could see the Red Flash feeding off the confidence their crowd had in them. At 20-20, the Nittany Lions serve reception broke down. We gave Saint Francis three overpasses and one ace. We also hit a Saint Francis overpass out of bounds. The Red Flash took game one 22-25. After the side switch, the guys got together and seemed to remind each other what they wanted out of each other. We hadn’t played poorly. Yes, we blinked at the end of the game but Saint Francis gave us only four points on errors…none on hitting errors! We wanted to force them to do that again.

Game two continued with neither team running away from the other. At 18-18, we converted on a couple of digs after a sideout for a 21-18 lead. This time we didn’t give the Red Flash any easy opportunities. Saint Francis closed to 23-22 but after a service error to take us to game point. They came up with a stuff to prevent us from closing out the match but after our timeout a Sunder kill ended game two 25-23.

Game three had PSU lead 5-0 on some tough Tom Comfort serving. That lead served us in several ways. It gave us the separation we needed and it took the crowd out of the match. Saint Francis couldn’t close the gap and we could see students leaving the gym as we closed them out at 25-16.

Game four had PSU down 0-3 but we tied at 4. We weren’t content in letting the Red Flash give us points. Our play was focused on our own performance. When a contact or rally wasn’t what the team wanted they moved forward to the next play. You really couldn’t tell what the score was by watching our team. Eventually, we built a 20-14 lead and kept pushing to finish 25-18.

This match was a good first step in the direction these guys want to go. Even in close games one and two, this group did what they asked of each other and that was to keep playing the next play. We seemed to wear down the Red Flash and their crowd and finally completely control the match. I was proud of the effort they had given each other.

We will need that type of effort in eight hours! The Patriots have not lost in EIVA Tait play. They are 6-0 and we are 5-0. We always expect a loud and hostile crowd at Mason and tonight should be no different. BUT we will have our strong and loyal following also. Guad has put together a PSU vs GMU alumni match to begin at 1 PM this afternoon. It appears that there will be a good contingent of PSU MVB Alums to battle for alumni supremacy and that will no doubt carry over to tonight’s match! It has the makings of one of the very best Nittany Lion – Patriot matches in quite a while. I’ll be back to you tonight as the bus makes its way back to State College. It should be fun!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #5 (2/21/2011)

Greetings from the Rec Hall office!

After gorgeous mid-February weather here in Happy Valley yesterday, the weather has started to slide. It was very similar to our performance against the Lees-McRae Bobcats. Our 24-26, 25-12, 25-23, 22-25, 15-9 had periods of sunny weather but was almost overrun by ice and slush and other assorted junk. Lees-McRae never let us off the hook. Good teams always believe that they are never out of a game or a match and the Bobcats were a shining example of that.

Game one had neither team pulling away from the other. There were about three plays where our communication either broke down or was ignored and the result was a free ball or poor set which kept the ball alive. Lees-McRae kept believing they could and after a couple of late blocks and a PSU hitting error they got game one.

Game two was as sunny and bright as we could get it as the Nittany Lions led 13-5 and kept playing at a high level. The ship was righted or so we thought. In retrospect, it may have been the worst thing for us. It may have made us complacent. All we needed to do was to raise our level when we needed to and we would be fine! Well, the “when we needed to” is always the fly in the ointment because not always keeping the bar high enables the opposition to hang around and start to believe the same thing.

Game three had us up 16-11 then two PSU hitting errors and a Bobcat block and kill had the game tied at 16. We managed to get the real point back immediately with a kill and from that point on both teams traded sideouts until a Comfort kill ended game three 25-23.

Game four had the Bobcats playing loose and easy…and again believing in what they were doing on their side of the net. They got the separation they needed at 18-15 and held off the opportunities the Nittany Lions had to cut into that lead. They blocked an overpass swing by PSU and dug a couple of other balls and hung on for a 25-22 lead.

Game fives are short dashes in which anything can happen. If you get down early by two or three points it is tough to make it up. We were tied at 6 when a Comfort kill got us a sideout and Tor Covello worked his service magic by putting the ball into play where we benefitted from two Bobcat hitting errors, two PSU stuff blocks and a PSU kill for a 12-6 lead. Three sideouts later we ended the match with a 15-9 win.

The effort needed to prepare prior to the match was even greater today and we didn’t meet it. This weekend was the Penn State Dance Marathon which is one of the very best things we do to help raise money for the fight against childhood cancer. It is known nation-wide for its Friday night to Sunday morning effort in the BJC. Saturday at noon was the student-athlete hour and this has been the first time in a long time that we have had a home match. The guys felt, and I agreed, that it was important for them to support ‘Thon and show up with the rest of the PSU student-athletes and play with the kids that were in attendance. I am so proud of them as a team for knowing what is really important. Yet, with that responsibility comes another one and that is to prepare to play well as a team. We didn’t do so good on that front. They know that! It will be interesting to see how this affects their efforts to become a great team with the rest of the season facing us. Wednesday we travel up the mountain to Loretto to take on the Saint Francis Red Flash. They have some young guys that if we don’t control can cause us problems. We know they are looking forward to getting us in their gym with their fans and getting after us. We will have to be ready to go once we are off that bus.

I’ll be back to you on the ride back down the mountain Wednesday evening.

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #5 (2/21/2011)

Greetings from the Rec Hall office!

This is our last home weekend in the last five weekends and we started it off well last evening with a 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 win over Mount Olive! Edgardo Goas was named the Mike Anderson “We Are..” Player of the Match.

We were looking forward to continuing the effort that we started to show last weekend. Mount Olive has several foreign players and from the little video we had of them they remind me of Rutgers-Newark as they have some guys with some good arms and they can get on some runs. As long as we didn’t help them with strings of errors I thought we would be in good shape.

One very pleasing aspect of the match was the way we finished the games. We have been learning to close out games but last night we closed out the games in strong fashion. We were down 17-18 in game one and closed out strong with some very good transition play. Game two just showed some very consistent sideout play down the stretch and game three was us withstanding a final push from Mount Olive. These were three very different close-out scenarios that we handled very well.

Tom Comfort gave us some offense from the right side but I thought Edgardo played well and certainly had one of his best nights in a PSU uniform blocking. Mount Olive is doing some very good things. They have guys that will certainly take good, physical swings at the ball. We managed to control their hitters at the right times throughout the match and our transition game has started to show improvement.

Tomorrow we host Lees-McRae, another Conference Carolinas team at 3 PM. We hope to see you in Rec Hall!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #3 (2/18/2011)

Greetings from the Rec Hall office!

I apologize for not being in touch with all of you as early-season moves into mid-season but let me try to catch you up on what has been happening with this current group of Nittany Lions.

After returning from Hawaii (and trying to readjust body clocks), the Nittany Lions opened our 2011 EIVA schedule by hosting the Saint Francis Red Flash and the Springfield Pride in the South Gym. The Red Flash has some very nice young players and they certainly made us work in our 25-18, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22 win, but it was good to get a win to start off our EIVA schedule.

Also, as noted before, PSU MVB is honoring the memory of Mike Anderson, the father of Matty who suddenly passed away last January by choosing a Penn State student-athlete of the match. Every home match, win or lose, the Mike Anderson “We are…” Penn State player of the match will be chosen. Our inaugural Mike Anderson honoree was Edgardo Goas for his play.

The next day we took on the Springfield Pride and continued to do what it took to win with a 25-22, 25-25, 25-28 sweep. Joe Sunder was named the Mike Anderson “We Are…” PSU Player of the match with his performance. Next year the NCAA will be sponsoring a DIII National Men’s Volleyball Championship and no doubt Springfield, Juniata and NYU along with Rutgers-Newark will be prime favorites for claiming the NCAA DIII title. We will face Springfield at their place on Saturday, March 5 for our last EIVA match with them. No doubt they will be more than ready for us!

Overall, we played OK against Saint Francis and Springfield…not great but OK. The guys weren’t real pleased and to their credit they talked about not making excuses. So we got back into the gym for the next weekend with Loyola and Lewis coming into Main Gym.

First up was Loyola and they are always a handful. Historically, they haven’t been very big but they have been athletic with some heavy arms. The heaviest being Mike Bunting. He is a Wyomissing native and has done quite well in the Windy City. He tore us up in the first game but then we settled down and controlled him a little better as the match wore on. We won in four: 21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 29-27. Scotty Kegerreis was named the Mike Anderson Player of the Match with his offense and blocking. The next day we hosted Lewis University and played one of our cleanest matches in a long time. We committed only eleven unforced errors in the entire match. Any time we can make a team earn 25 points we will be in the game and, hopefully, the match. We took this match 26-24, 25-19, 25-19. Dennis Del Valle was named the Mike Anderson Player of the Match. He passed very well and played, well, the type defense we have come to expect Dennis to play.

The next weekend had UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge come into Rec Hall along with Ohio State. It was THE volleyball weekend at Penn State with the USAV Boys’ Junior Tournament run by Scott and Rose Atkinson that brings in, in any given year, 80 to 100 boys’ teams who compete in the IM Building, South Gym and Main Gym. Our matches are set up so that PSU and OSU do not meet and UCI and CSUN don’t meet. OSU defeated CSUN in three games prior to our match against UCI. In our match, I felt we weren’t sure if we deserved to be on the same court as UCI. We seemed hesitant to celebrate anything and certainly didn’t compete until the third game. Any time a John Speraw coached team senses a team backing away they just turn it on and make them pay. That match was no exception. The biggest disappointment was that we did not record a single block in the match! We couldn’t block and intersection with a truck tonight! I believe blocking is equal parts technique, strength and competitive desire and at points at least one of those factors was lacking. On top of that, UCI is a team that controls their third contact well. Suffice to say; it was a very frustrating evening that, I am sure, even the fans felt as UCI took them out of the match also. Nick Turko was named the Mike Anderson Player of the Match with his offensive output but we couldn’t sustain enough of anything to keep it close or overtake the Anteaters.

The next evening I was determined to get the crowd into the match early. The first close call of the match I was going to argue…vehemently…and get a yellow card. I simply wanted to see if I could get the team and the crowd going a little. First referee Eric Hoffman called Dennis on an illegal set to Edgardo. (A hitter may not hit a ball which a libero, while in front of the 3-m line, used his hands to set.) It was close enough for me to, ahem, point out my differing perspective. It took a while but eventually Eric did penalize me with a yellow card which resulted in point for CSUN. Did that get the team and crowd into the match earlier? I don’t know but I wanted to make sure this match would be different from last night’s UCI match. The important thing to note is that Eric was absolutely, unequivocally dead right in his call on Dennis. The video verifies that without question. Many times referees take the brunt of the blame for an undesirable outcome but I have to say that in the men’s game the referees are some of the best in the game. They truly want the men’s game to prosper. Lord knows we don’t have the budget to pay them for travel and expenses like football and basketball officials…or like even women’s volleyball conferences have…but they work hard at their craft and take pride in being a vital cog in the growth of the game. So next time you sit in Rec Hall and wonder if that ref (or linesperson) needs to make an eye doctor appointment please understand that our refs do some of the finest officiating in the country…and Eric is in the top group of officials!

Anyhow, we manage to take down the Matadors in three games: 25-14, 25-22, 26-24 with Ian Hendries earning the Mike Anderson Player of the Match honors with his hitting and blocking…yes, we actually blocked a couple of balls this match! The Matadors are a very young team and Coach Jeff Campbell, who has family in Pennsylvania, had told me that in his entire career he had, up to this year, only started three true freshmen was now starting four true freshmen. Jeff will have them ready to go over the next four years and I won’t be surprised to see the Matadors make another run like last year to the NCAA’s.

We then had a couple of days to train then onto the bus for our second road trip of the year. We headed to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes. They were coming off a five game win over UCI prior to our match with CSUN. They were playing well and I knew they would pose a stiff challenge in St. Johns Arena. Our last loss there was a five gamer in 2007. I felt those seniors (Ohio State starts four 5th year seniors) would really get after us. They did. In game one we were down 8-12 and brought it back to 10-12 when we then hit an overpass in the bottom of our net so instead of being down 11-12 and still serving we were at 10-13. After we traded sideouts, OSU ran off seven straight points effectively ending game one. Game two was close but a four point run by the Buckeyes at 12-12 gave them the separation they needed. Game three was again close but at 20-21 they went on a four point run aided by three of our errors to close out the match with a 17-25, 21-25, 25-20 win. Those games were reminiscent of games that we have won in the past against younger teams with key runs at key times aided by errors from our opponent. We just have to work through this and keep the guys pointed in the right direction. We’ll get there.

So we head into our second weekend of EIVA play. We were facing Rutgers-Newark and Princeton. Rutgers defeated us at their place last season and had many of the same players returning and Princeton fought us for the EIVA championship and had many of the same starters back. I was concerned because we had come of a pretty emotional weekend, then OSU which got us back home at 3 AM Thursday, and now we had to gear up again for two teams that were gunning for us. Rutgers had us toe-to-toe but we managed to make some plays at crucial moments in game two to go up 2-0 but then we made 13 unforced errors in game three! Three consecutive errors starting with us serving match point 24-22 aided our downfall. We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in that one but Credit Rutgers for not crumbling either. We settled back down in game four and took the match 25-19, 28-26, 29-31, 25-19. Nick Turko claimed his second Mike Anderson Player of the Match honor this night. We face Rutgers at the Golden Dome in late March and it will be a tough match. Mark my words!

The next day we hosted Princeton and seemed to be ready to go. We took a 17-8 lead and cruised from there in game one. Game two saw a 20-12 lead which we comfortably earned and finished that game easily. Now, for full disclosure, Princeton’s starting senior outside hitter had a shoulder injury and was forced to play libero which made defending them a tad easier. When we get them in late March he should be ready to go. Game three saw us gain a 21-11 lead with some of the non-starters getting a chance to play. Tor Covello, our “other” setter did a superb job in game two and three engineering the offense to those leads. One of the worries of getting in a new lineup, especially one laden with freshmen is that the offense starts to become a “First collegiate…” offense. We want to get someone their “first collegiate” kill, “first collegiate” ace or “first collegiate” block. The team degenerates into individual concerns instead of continuing with what got us there in the first place. I thought we would be fine but Princeton made it close at 24-23 but a Ryan Wolf kill ended the match 25-17, 25-16, 25-23. Our young guys need to be part of those games. It isn’t easy on the fans and certainly not easy on the staff but we can’t recreate the pressure they experience as the points go up on the board and reaction of the crowd. It is the experience they need to go through. Tom Comfort was honored as the Mike Anderson Player of the Match with his 12 kills. And being a fellow Western New Yorker as are the Anderson, it was fitting he kept it in Buffalo!

So now we get ready to face Mount Olive in South Gym on Friday at 7 PM and then Lees-McRae in Main Gym on Saturday at 3 PM. They are members of the Conference Carolinas and have been instrumental in organizing men’s volleyball for that conference. Next year with the addition of Barton College they will have six conference members and will apply for an automatic berth into the NCAA men’s volleyball championships. This no doubt will force the NCAA’s hand for the beginning stages of bracket expansion. We look forward to hosting these two this weekend and know they come in thinking they have nothing to lose. We will have to meet their energy with ours and make sure of our execution in all phases of our game.

Now that I have you all caught up on the goings-on with PSU MVB, I promise to stay current with my updates. I do confess the last four weeks have been crazier than usual in the Pavlik household. When I returned from Hawaii on that Monday, Heather informed me that her boss and one of my dearest friends long-time Juniata women’s volleyball head coach and Athletics Director, Larry Bock resigned his positions to take the head coaching position at the US Naval Academy. It was a shocking surprise to us all. Heather was named the second head coach ever of the Juniata Women’s Volleyball program within 48 hours of Larry’s departure and our household was a whirlwind of trying to organizing meetings, getting Jack to swim practices and other places and coaching. Now that has settled down and we are getting back to whatever passes for normalcy in our household but we still want to wish Larry all the best as he moves to the USNA. I, for one, want to know when he gets the required anchors tattoo on his biceps…or when he starts to have a hankerin’ for spinach! He will do well and we will miss him terribly in Huntingdon!

I’ll be back to you after this weekend’s matches. Hope to see you in Rec Hall!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the Nittany Lions

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #2 (1/19/2011)

Greetings from 34000 feet somewhere west of LA!

The 2011 season has started for the PSU MVB Team! We started last weekend with the annual Alumni match. About 35 alums had returned and the current Nittany Lion team battled with an Alumni team consisting of setter Luke Murray (’08), outside hitters Jay Stauffer (’08) and Kevin Wentzel (’06), opposite Gary Vogel (’08) and middles Jon Sherrick (’08) and Nate Meerstein (’06). Libero duties were shared by Ryan Walthall (’07) and Ricky Mattei (’04). The current team took the first competition of the weekend by winning three games. However, the Alums evened the weekend when Meers bested Joe Sunder by winning the Ball Pull with two pretty dominating wins. This brought the battle for weekend supremacy down to the Old Black Water Sing-Off. The Alums, no doubt still fired up from last year’s letter from the Doobie Brothers themselves and clearly using their 35 years of honed musical skill, captured the Sing Off and once again walked away from the weekend leaving the current PSU MVB Team to prepare for next year’s Alumni Weekend!

It was great seeing everyone once again and catching up. I always hope that our current team realizes how much our success is grounded in the blood, sweat and tears of all that have come before them. The common thread that connects PSU MVB generation to the next will always be the support from our alums. It will always be the appreciation of the current team. It will always be knowing that no matter where we take the court we do it with all of you with us! Coach Tait started it with chili and the desire to keep this group together. I truly appreciate all of in keeping Coach’s vision of what this program can be about through the past 35 years! We hope to see you all at next year’s event!

After that weekend’s festivities, the team practiced Sunday and practiced well! They went through the first day of classes and, once again, put in another outstanding practice. The messages sent from the Alums must have taken root. We then left Rec Hall at 4:30 AM Tuesday for Hawaii. We managed to get out before the weather hit in State College and were only 45 minutes late landing in Honolulu. Where, we were told, the weather was terrible: rainy and 70 degrees! The team took the news well!

At the annual Shorebird dinner with Kathy and Basil Sparlin (and enchanting daughter Kym) that evening Basil announced he will be defending his “2002 Longest Drive” title at the Alumni Final Fore Golf Outing this May! The President of the Hawaii Men’s Volleyball Booster Club will no doubt be afforded the trappings befitting such a visiting dignitary this spring by our very own Men’s Volleyball Booster Club. I am sure Yak and Guad will provide appropriate welcoming gifts…Iron City and Kielbasa and maybe Creamery Ice Cream?

We then turned our sights on the tournament at hand. We would play UCLA, Hawaii and Ball State. The first night is usually the toughest for us and the Bruins had about six matches under their belt. We had stretches of good play with an outstanding comeback at the end of game one where Tor Covello came in and served a stretch of seven points to help us erase a 17-22 deficit for a game one win but we couldn’t keep a consistency of execution to get the match.

Tor has been one of the most unsung guys in the success of the last three years. He is running the offense against the starters every day and has developed his own skills very nicely. His serving will be used this year and we’ll no doubt see him running the offense at times also.

There were things that showed promise in this match: our passing was pretty good and when we executed offensively we were tough to stop. But I really liked our competitive character! The team carried itself with a confidence which never wavered. I really thought that could help us the next night against Hawaii and their crowd.

Hawaii was upset by Ball State in three games after our match with UCLA so we knew they would come out with a chip on their shoulder and we would have to withstand their best. We managed to win in five games as Joe Sunder was close to unstoppable. Edgardo also had one of his very best matches in setting the offense. It was a fun match. The atmosphere in the Stan Sherriff Center is always great for men’s volleyball and adds so much to the match and when the last Hawaii attack sailed out of bounds the Nittany Lion fans in attendance were heard by our team! Later the team thanked all for their support.

The next night we had Ball State. They had been defeated by UCLA in four games prior to our match with Hawaii but this Cardinal team is senior-laden and we asked the team to get into the “here and now” for the match. Nothing we did previously was worth considering – only worry about a dangerous Ball State team. Boy, did they take that to heart! We started out a little streaky but eventually evened out as all three games wore on. Goas and Sunder continued their hot play as Tom Comfort added some needed offensive balance. The passers kept us in-system and freshman Jace Olsen, thrown into the fire when Ryan Wolf’s balky shoulder bothered him, played years ahead of his freshman status with his attacking and passing. Dennis Del Valle also made himself a factor with several outstanding digs which we have all come to expect from him! The three game sweep was a very good team effort.

The Outrigger All-Tournament team honored Goas and Del Valle and named Joe Sunder and the Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Congrats to them and their teammates for giving them that opportunity.

We had some questions about this team as we looked at the year. The biggest being from who would we get the offense which Lipsitz and Price provided the past two years. Certainly, Sunder provided terminal third contacts but Edgardo did the best job of his career at orchestrating the offense. I think this year will be a lot of fun.

On another note, which may only interest me, while at the beach Athletic Trainer Kelly Saxton and SID Susan Bedsworth found a plastic toy soldier. Apparently, that evening while eating sushi with the Sparlins, the soldier was dubbed Sergeant Saxton and, reportedly, his Outrigger experienced was chronicled with photos. I am sure these may surface soon!

So as we descend to LAX I feel pretty good about this group and how it seems to handle itself. I think we are going to have fun this year and I believe this team DOES NOT want any other team to be using their locker room in May!

I’ll be back to you next weekend with thoughts after our Saint Francis and Springfield matches at home in South Gym. Hope to see you there!

Happy New Year!

Pav, Colin, Jay and the Guys…and Sergeant Saxton

PSU MVB Vol. 14 Issue #1 (9/25/2010)

Greetings from Rec Hall!

A new school year is upon us and things are getting rolling here in Happy Valley! The guys are busy with strength and conditioning coach Kirk Adams. The phrase “Ready….go!” once again, for our guys, has taken on meaning generally reserved for phrases consisting of only four letters. We are in the gym with them for only two hours per week according to NCAA rules but when they have been in the gym with us they have been working hard.

Loyal PSU MVB Update readers will be rewarded by the REALLY BIG NEWS we have to share with you at the end of this writing. For those who want to scroll ahead and read…go ahead. For those more patient, please read on!

Before I get into this year, let’s wrap up the summer. Many events occurred this summer leading off with four, yep, count ‘em four, weddings! Dan O’Dell, Andrew Price and Matt Proper were all married to them. Congrats to them and deepest sympathies to their wonderfully patient and wise wives! By the way, all three were 2006 grads…which now only leaves 2006 grad Nate Meerstein as single! Meers was always the wisest of the five. (For the record, Kevin Wentzel was the first of the five to take the plunge!) I know I said four weddings. The fourth was Assistant Coach Jay Hosack. He and bride Stephanie Rae were married in August in beautiful Flagstaff, AZ. Heather, Jack and I attended the wedding and had a great time. Now, Mr. Stephanie Rae is getting busy trying to make our setters better!

Also, moving from player to coach is Ryan Sweitzer (PSU ’09). After playing last year for the Falkenburg team in Sweden where he led the league in points scored, Sweitz joined PSU WVB alum Katie Price as her assistant at Eastern Illinois University: http://www.eiupanthers.com/news/2010/6/3/VB_0603102330_sweitzer-hire.aspx . May Sweitz coach players like he was…take that the way you want! Katie and Sweitz as of this writing have their EIU team at 7-5. All of our best to them.

Speaking of Nittany Lions who are coaching in the NCAA ranks we have Ryan Walthall (PSU ’07) at University of Northern Florida: http://www.unfospreys.com/coaches.aspx?rc=213&path=wvball; Aaron Smith (PSU ’07) at Northwestern University: http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/smith_aaron00.html; John Wasielewski (PSU ’90) at Duke University: http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22704&SPID=1844&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=152872&Q_SEASON=2010; Brian Heffernan (PSU ’93) at University of Wisconsin: http://www.uwbadgers.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/heffernan_brian00.html; Jason Kepner (PSU ’97), head coach of the College of Charleston: http://www.cofcsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=64087&SPID=7054&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=14800&ATCLID=784596&Q_SEASON=2010. Finally, Dan O’Dell is the volunteer assistant coach with the UCLA Bruins women’s team! Here is the website with Dan in an UCLA polo: http://www.uclabruins.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/odell_dan00.html. I apologize if I am missing any other Nittany Lions out there coaching NCAA teams. I know we have even more coaches coaching high school and club teams. We’ll see if we can update that list in the near future.

Also this summer had two Nittany Lions graduate and sign professional contracts. Max Lipsitz signed with Volley Amriswil in Switzerland and Will Price signed with GC Lamia in Greece. Also, Kyle Masterson (PSU ’07) signed with Tierp in Sweden and Alex Gutor (PSU ’07) signed with Ajaccio in France. Best of luck to them and their teams this season.

Moving on to former Nittany Lions and their teams, both Matt Anderson and Max Holt are currently with the USA National Team in Italy for the World Championships. The USA’s first match is Saturday, September 25 against Mexico. They then play September 26 against Venezuela and the 27th against Argentina in their first pool. You can follow their progress on www.usavolleyball.org. After the World Championships they will be joining their respective teams in Italy for their professional season.

Also this summer, our hard-working, ever vigilant PSU MVB Booster club president Frank Guadagnino has found some of our “founding fathers”. He has tracked down Ted Dzura (PSU '73), Phin Tuthill (PSU '71), Gates Rhodes (PSU ’71), John Carre (PSU '73) and Bruce Reinhart (PSU ’70). Welcome back to the family gentlemen!

On another alumnus note, it appears that Jake Yanchar (PSU ‘95) has put to use the Nittany Lion edumacation and has come up with an iPhone app that has become quite a hit. Former PSU MVB manager Chris Elgin passed along this link to Jake’s recent success: http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=139615&catid=45. Not bad for a defensive spec!

One of the biggest accomplishments of you folks out there is the response to Guad’s efforts through the Varsity S club for contacting and encouraging former letter winners to give back to their sport. Before the Varsity S club started to focus their efforts in this area, the average percentage of former student-athletes who gave back to their programs was a meager 7%! In 2009, PSU MVB alums (through Varsity S records there are 186 of us) had 14.5% of us give back. That’s 27 former PSU MVB players. Guad and I believed we can do better and in 2010 the number moved up to 40 of us for a 21.5% of all of PSU MVB alums. This represents a 48.1% increase in over a year! We have the highest percentage of alum giving out of all the PSU sports! WE CAN STILL DO BETTER! Whether it is $20 or $200 or whatever, the point is WE are helping the current and future Nittany Lions. Let’s keep pushing that number! Guad and I can tell you that PSU MVB is being viewed by the Nittany Lion Club and Varsity S program as THE program that has the best relationship with all of its alums…even Harpo! I’d really like to show them what we can do. From the ‘60’s to the 2010 grads, let’s do better than one of five alums helping out!

Now on to this year! We have been joined by five freshmen this year. These five you will undoubtedly come to know as you see their efforts in Rec Hall. Connor Curry (Newport Beach, CA) is a libero from Newport Beach HS and he is joined by fellow Southern Californian Jace Olsen (Manhattan Beach, CA) who is a 6’7” outside hitter from Mira Costa HS. Nick Goodell (Baden, PA) is a 6’4” outside from Ambridge HS – yes, high school of Ron Shayka and Ron Kelley! Joe Yasalonis (Newtown, PA) is a 6’8” middle from Pennsbury HS and, last but not least, Peter Russell (Ellicott, MD) is a 6’5” outside from Centennial HS and a “distant” relative (oldest son) of former Nittany Lion All-American middle Stew Russell! We have been in the gym for only two weeks but they have shown the promise of bright futures. It’ll be fun watching them develop.

I would like to put together a “This Day in PSU MVB History”. In conjunction with our GoPSUSports website, I think it would be great to have a fact, birthday, trivia question regarding the history of our program. I would like to solicit from you any facts, preferably real, that we could eventually combine into a history calendar. I am sure there are many “interesting” happenings out there that would be fun to comb through…whether they make a final cut will be another thing. Although, the ones that don’t may sell more! So please don’t hesitate to send them to me and feel free to copy Guad (FGuadagnino@ReedSmith.com) also.

One change that you will be seeing this season is the move from 30 points to 25 points for our games. It has been a topic of discussion every year since the inception of rally score and the men’s coaches felt it was the right time to align ourselves with the FIVB and play the game the way the rest of the world is playing it. If you thought you would miss something when you went to get a hot dog or Pepsi during one of our matches to this point, you could miss key plays and swings of momentum that could decide the outcome of a game if you leave your seat! So hit the concession stand before the match and make sure you have gone to the bathroom during warm-ups also! You miss 5 points you may miss 20% of a game!

Finally, the REALLY BIG NEWS which I promised at the beginning of this initial missive. About one month ago Rick and Susan Sokolov generously endowed the Sokolov Family Setter Endowed Scholarship for Men’s Volleyball! Rick is the Chairperson for the Nittany Lion Club’s For the Future Campaign! He and Susan and I have become very good friends…mostly due to a love of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Penn State. I have spent time with these wonderful people and I can’t thank them enough for their generosity and support. I am sure we will appropriately honor them honor them at the upcoming PSU MVB Alumni Banquet! I sure I speak for all the PSU MVB family in issuing the thanks and deep appreciation of five decades of PSU MVB alums and friends for their generous gift!

So as this year has started with such a bang and you, our loyal alums and friends are on our minds our team has started the journey that we hope ends right here in Rec Hall as we are the host of the 2011 NCAA Championships! It is looking like we will have the USA National Team training here that week with a Blue-Red USA scrimmage Friday evening between the semi’s and finals here in Rec Hall. There will be a 30 team high school tournament being played in the IM Building on that Friday. Guad and Yak are busy organizing a golf outing for that Friday and USA Volleyball will have a coaches’ and players’ clinic on Saturday morning. We are working on making that week a Volleyball Extravaganza! As details become more and available we will keep you posted.

Thanks again for all your support! I can’t think of a group of people who I want our current to represent and I hope you start to make plans to catch this team in action this year! I will be back in touch soon!

All the best,

Pav, Colin, Jay and the guys!