Conference News
Penn State Stifles Juniata's Upset Bid to Win EIVA Championship & Head to NCAA Semis
Penn State Stifles Juniata's Upset Bid, 3-0
Reporter: Mark Myers
Special to EIVAvolleyball.com
The formula for an upset usually goes as follows: Get an early
lead, stay close, and have a lead in the final portion of the
match.
Saturday night at Rec Hall, Juniata College collected the first two
parts in the opening set, but it was Penn State that sealed the
deal when the game reached the 20s.
The Eagles opened the match on a 5-1 run, but Penn State, and
junior Will Price's service game retaliated with a 9-2 run of its
own and the Lions never looked back.
"In warm-ups, my serve was feeling really good," Price said. "It
was just a good toss and I was hitting the ball; it wasn't really
anything different. It was not like I served seven aces to come
back from that run, but when we got them in two-pass, our block,
passing, and transitions game just took over."
After the strong start by Juniata, Penn State regrouped and
advanced to its 11th consecutive NCAA semifinal with a
3-0 (30-25, 30-19, 30-21) sweep. The Nittany Lions will defend
their national title on Thursday in Provo, Utah.
The Eagles hung around with Penn State in the first set, and put
forth a better showing than the majority of the fans in Rec Hall -
minus their supporters - were expecting. Juniata's early outburst
was a surprise to everyone, including the Lions.
"We were real prepared," Juniata setter Matt Werle said. "And I
think they were a little shocked at how well we played at the
beginning of the match, because [Thursday] night wasn't one of our
better matches and I think they underestimated us at the beginning
of the match. Once they noticed we were here to play and weren't
going to roll over for them, they started kicking it into
gear."
After the nail biting first set, the energized crowd, including a
few dozen Juniata students who drove in from Huntingdon, watched
Lions' libero Dennis Del Valle put on a show. Del Valle sprinkled
in spectacular one-armed digs with his usual superb passing. His
most outstanding play didn't even net the Lions a point.
During the third set, Del Valle scampered toward the Penn State
bench; he reached his left arm out and contacted the ball over his
right shoulder, and back into play. The Eagles eventually scored
the point, but the Penn State crowd roared for it diminutive
libero. Penn State coach Mark Pavlik compared Del Valle's arm to
that of comic book hero, Mr. Fantastic.
After the match, Pavlik emphatically called the 5-foot-8 sophomore
the best libero in the history of the program.
"Good liberos help you side out. Great liberos will allow you to
win any rally you're in," Pavlik said. "Even if you don't get the
points, Dennis can get you momentum by making the plays he makes.
I'm glad we have him for two more years."
"And he's on our team," Price added.
The Penn State offense was led on Thursday, and through the first
set, by outside hitters Price, Joe Sunder, and Ryan Sweitzer, but
somewhere in the second set setter Edgardo Goas found his middles,
particularly Max Lipsitz. Lipsitz finished the game with 12 kills
and an eye-popping .706 hitting percentage.
The final stats only show how well the middle hitters played
offensively, but it was the collective defense on Juniata's top
weapons - Evan Halteman and Dan Powers - that made the difference.
Halteman and Powers combined for only nine kills after slicing the
St. Francis defense for 28 on Thursday night.
"We wanted to make sure we controlled their middles," Pavlik said.
"We did that with our serving, Max [Holt] and Max [Lipsitz], and we
wanted to make sure that when we dug balls, we got some pretty good
swings."
The Lions ended the match as it had begun it, on a service run.
This time it was Sweitzer who closed the match out from the service
line with a 4-0 run. Senior Max Holt and Goas gave Penn State the
EIVA championship with a block on Powers, ending any hope of
Juniata becoming the first Division III school to make the NCAA
men's volleyball semifinal.
"There were a lot of long, scramble points and guys on both teams
traded some really outstanding digs, good touches, and then [Penn
State] would win the point," Juniata coach Jeremy Price said. "And
that gets really old after a while. It's tough to overcome,
especially when you play a team as talented as Penn State."
EIVA Playoff All-Tournament Team:
Dennis Del Valle, Penn State
Evan Halteman, Juniata
Max Holt, Penn State
Joe Sunder, Penn State
Jordan Varee, Saint Francis
Matt Werle, Juniata
EIVA Playoff Most Outstanding Player:
Will Price, Penn State
