Sweet Taste of Revenge: Penn State Men’s Volleyball Beats Princeton in Straight Sets for EIVA Crown
It doesn’t get much better than this for Penn State.
One season after falling in shocking fashion in the EIVA Semifinals to eventual tournament champion Princeton, the Penn State Nittany Lions defeated the Tigers to win their 35th conference title in program history.
The Nittany Lions defeated the Tigers in straight sets to complete a perfect 12-0 record against conference opponents this season while only dropping two total sets in those matches.
None of those came in the two prior times Penn State faced Princeton in late February.
While the Nittany Lions veered away from looking at the past however, last season's loss was on the mind of the Penn State roster.
Two-time EIVA Player of the Year Cole Bogner noted that getting revenge for that loss felt good to achieve.
“Revenge is pretty sweet,” Bogner said. “It was always lying on the back of our head, something that we always thought about.”
A big help in achieving that vengeance was outside hitter Cal Fisher who not only recorded a season-high 23 kills against George Mason to help get his team to the semifinals, but also picked up 12 kills in the championship win.
Those two performances earned Fisher the Most Outstanding Player Award for the EIVA Tournament, a title he also won the last time the Nittany Lions won it in 2021.
For Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik, those are just two of his now 24 EIVA Tournament in his storied career.
After a year-long absence from the top of the mountain, Pavlik is happy to have once again completed the climb with this group of players.
“It’s always good to be the champion,” Pavlik said. “It’s always good to be the king, and I think these guys wear the crown pretty well.”
With the win Penn State locks up a spot in the NCAA Tournament, something it narrowly missed out on last year.
For Pavlik and his team that doesn’t mean changing things up headed into Fairfax next week, but sharpening up on what they’re good at.
“This is not an adjustment period, we refine what we do, we believe in our strengths, we make sure we’re on the same page in certain situations,” Pavlik said. “We don’t adjust, we’re ready to play.”
Penn State will wait to see if it is one of the top two seeds of the tournament prior to the start of the opening round on April 30.
It will be the Nittany Lions’ first tournament appearance since 2021 where they fell to Lewis University.
Logan Bourandas is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
