2022 EIVA Tournament Preview

Story posted April 20, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Logan Bourandas

It’s tournament season in the world of collegiate volleyball and the EIVA conference tournament is set to open up on Wednesday in State College, Pennsylvania.

Six teams will battle at Rec Hall with five of them looking to take the title of conference champion away from the top-seeded Penn State Nittany Lions.

Penn State is looking to cap off what has been a historic season where it went an undefeated 16-0 in EIVA play.

They open the tournament as the undisputed favorite with Brett Wildman taking home his second EIVA player of the year award of his career and the entire starting lineup being named to the EIVA First-Team.

Penn State coach Mark Pavlik was also named the EIVA Coach of the Year as the mastermind behind the No. 2 team in the country.

They will be joined by Harvard as the two teams with byes in the first round of the tournament.

Harvard had a bounce-back season after having missed all of last year due to the Ivy League taking the year off of sports.

The Crimson went 10-6 in conference play this season as they qualified for the tournament for the first time since they won it in the 2018 season.

They will play the winner of the matchup between No. 3 NJIT and No. 6 George Mason in the semifinals.

NJIT, like Harvard, finished the regular season with a 10-6 record in conference play and holds the distinct title of being the only team in the EIVA to take Penn State to five sets.

Meanwhile, George Mason had a down year compared to last season when it made it to the EIVA Championship.

The Patriots finished with a 7-9 conference record on the season which included back-to-back losses against Harvard to end the season which dropped them to that No. 6 seed.

The other matchup in the quarterfinals will see No. 4 Princeton take on No. 5 Saint Francis.

Princeton was another team that missed the entire 2021 season but came back to finish with a 10-6 conference record this season.

The Tigers finished the season with a staggering seven-game winning streak and are looking to take home their first EIVA title since 2019.

Saint Francis ended the year with an even 8-8 conference record and is in the tournament for a third consecutive season.

They will look to improve on their run to the semifinals from a year ago.

Logan Bourandas is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.