EIVA Tournament Final Four Preview
It’s tournament season once again in the volleyball landscape as the EIVA Tournament is already two games in with four teams still fighting for a conference championship.
All four teams will play at Rec Hall where the Penn State Nittany Lions are once again the host team.
The blue and white earned the right to host the tournament after going undefeated in conference play for a second straight season.
Last year, the Nittany Lions went 16-0 in EIVA play during the regular season but suffered a shocking loss to the eventual champion Princeton Tigers in five sets.
The loss prevented the Nittany Lions from earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Penn State played with vengeance on its mind this season, entering the tournament ranked No. 2 in the country with a 24-3 record.
Recently, the Nittany Lions also cleaned up in the EIVA awards department with setter Cole Bogner winning his second EIVA Player of the Year award.
Bogner headlines a Nittany Lions’ team which saw seven players make an EIVA team with six on the first team.
Penn State will start out its quest for a championship against No. 4 seed George Mason.
The Patriots survived a tough five-set matchup against Harvard as George Mason won the final set 15-12.
Two Patriots ended the match with 20 kills or more as Omar Hoyos led the team with 22.
With the win, the Patriots advanced one round further than in the previous season where they fell in four sets to NJIT.
Now sitting at 13-14 record-wise this season, the Patriots will look to have the Nittany Lions bounced from the tournament in the semifinals for the second consecutive season.
Earlier this month, Penn State went on the road and recorded two straight-set victories against George Mason.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, we have a championship rematch.
After winning the conference championship this season, No. 2 seed Princeton earned a bye in this year's tournament as its first matchup will be against No. 6 seed NJIT.
The Highlanders entered last year's tournament as the No. 3 seed and after four-set wins over George Mason and Harvard, they had the tables turned on them losing to the Princeton Tigers in four sets even after winning the opening set.
This season, however, it was the Highlanders who took out the No. 3 seed in Charleston with a five-set victory.
NJIT had won its first two sets but a 3-0 scoring run to end the final set saved any thoughts of a potential reverse sweep.
Meanwhile, Princeton has gone from the underdog to a favorite this tournament finishing with a 13-11 record which includes a 7-3 mark in EIVA play.
In the two sides' matches during the regular season, the Tigers won both with one coming in four sets and the other in five.
Last year proved that anything can happen in a winner-take-all format but fans should be in for a show as the action continues at Rec Hall.
Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
