Penn State Men’s Volleyball Continues Weekend Series Following Win over Daemen

Story posted January 14, 2023 in CommRadio, Sports by Logan Bourandas

For the first time this season, Penn State gets the chance to play in Happy Valley.

The weekend already started on Friday with a 3-0 sweep over Daemen and will wrap up on Saturday against Merrimack.

Penn State’s win over Daemen was at the Rec Hall South Gym while Saturday’s game will be at Rec Hall.

The Nittany Lions moved up to 3-0 on the season with Friday’s win and have only lost two total sets so far on the season.

A six-point run midway through the first set helped the Nittany Lions to a 25-10 victory to open up the day.

After Daemen kept the second set close at the start, a hot finish from the Nittany Lions ended with a 25-15 win to set up the third set.

While the Nittany Lions never trailed in either of the first two sets, that wouldn’t be the case in set number three which would be the closest set but Penn State finished with a 25-22 victory to close out the match.

Michael Valenzi put on a show leading both sides with 10 kills while Owen Rose put up great numbers defensively with 9 blocks.

That performance put Valenzi at 32 kills on the season which is second on the team behind John Kerr with 35.

Rose leads the Nittany Lions with 23 blocks on the year.

Now, the Nittany Lions take on Merrimack to close out the weekend in State College.

Like Penn State, Merrimack also saw action on Friday facing Juniata College.

The Warriors were swept in the match with Matthew Motes leading the team with seven kills.

Merrimack put up at least 20 points in two out of the three sets but only held a lead in one of those sets, which turned out to be a brief one.

That contest was the first-ever game for the school's volleyball program and it will face a tough test already against a hot Penn State squad looking to stay that way for a tough road ahead.

Following that match, the Nittany Lions will go back on the road for the First Point Collegiate Challenge next weekend.

After Saturday’s match, the Nittany Lions will not play at home until Jan. 25 against Long Beach State.

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

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Logan Bourandas

Third-Year / Broadcast Journalism

Logan Bourandas is a third-year broadcast journalism major from Long Island, NY. He is a the news director for CommRadio and the host of Ducks on the Pond, which is an all-baseball talk show on CommRadio. He is also a sports writer, broadcaster and podcaster for CommRadio. He got his start as the station manager for his high school radio station WPOB in his hometown of Plainview, NY, where he hosted numerous radio shows and was involved in sports broadcasts. You can contact him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).