UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – No. 3 Penn State men’s volleyball opens postseason play at home as it hosts the EIVA Tournament at Rec Hall. The top-seeded Nittany Lions play the winner between fourth-seeded George Mason and fifth-seeded Harvard in the semifinal round on Thursday at 7 p.m. The winner advances to the championship match on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Lions earned the right to host the conference tournament by winning the regular season title, going 24-3 overall and a perfect 10-0 in league play.
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
Follow all the action with free live streaming links and live stats links that can be found on the TOURNAMENT CENTRAL PAGE.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
First Round
Wednesday, April 19
#3 Charleston (WV) vs. #6 NJIT – 4:30 p.m.
#4 George Mason vs. #5 Harvard – 7 p.m.
Semifinals
Thursday, April 20
#2 Princeton vs. 3-6 Winner – 4:30 p.m.
#1 Penn State vs. 4-5 Winner – 7 p.m.
Championship
Saturday, April 23
Semifinal 1 Winner vs Semifinal 2 Winner – 7 p.m.
PARKING
• Parking for all Penn State Athletics’ non-football events will require a valid permit or payment of the applicable parking fee for campus lots. Fans with valid Penn State University Park parking permits will be permitted to park at non-football athletics events for free, following Transportation Services parking policies and access.
• Parking for men’s volleyball matches, fans are asked to park in the Nittany Deck or West Deck. Fans without a permit are encouraged to prepay for event parking at a discounted rate of $6.00 through ParkMobile – https://psu.parkmobile.io/. Prepayment is available through 11:59 p.m. the day prior to each event. Event day parking will be $10 per vehicle and is cash only/can be purchased on the ParkMobile app.
•Parking for all non-football athletics events is managed by Penn State Transportation Services. For more information or questions, visit transportation.psu.edu or email [email protected].
PENN STATE EIVA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
- Penn State has won the EIVA Tournament 34 times since the first time it was held in 1971. The Lions’ first title came in 1972.
- The Lions have won 22 EIVA Tournament titles under head coach Mark Pavlik, the most recent coming in 2021.
- Penn State won 17 straight titles from 1999-2015.
PENN STATE NOTES & STATS
- Penn State closed the season at No. 3 in the AVCA Coaches Poll. The Lions have been ranked in the top three for 11 consecutive weeks.
- Two Penn State players have a chance to reach career milestones during the EIVA Tournament. Cole Bogner is 13 assists away from reaching 4,000 for his career, while Cal Fisher needs 15 kills to reach 1,000.
- In addition to Bogner winning EIVA Player of the Year for the second time in his career and Ryan Merk receiving the Freshman of the Year award in the conference, the Lions put all seven of their starters on All-EIVA teams. Joining Bogner and Merk on the first team were Toby Ezeonu, Cal Fisher, Michal Kowal, and Owen Rose. Brett Wildman made the second team, earning his fifth career All-EIVA accolade.
- Penn State celebrated another successful year in the classroom with nine players earning All-EIVA Academic honors. Receiving the award were Jack Driscoll, Gabe Hartke, Tim Herget, Tyler Herget, John Kerr, Will Kuhns, Sam Marsh, Michael Valenzi, and Wildman.
- Penn State has won three-straight EIVA regular season titles and has a 28-match regular season winning streak in the conference.
- The Lions have the third-best winning percentage (.889) in the nation, trailing only UCLA (.931) and Hawaii (.929).
UP NEXT
- The winner of the EIVA Tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament hosted by George Mason on April 30-May 6.
For more information on Penn State men’s volleyball, follow the Nittany Lions on Twitter @PennStateMVBALL and Instagram @pennstatemvball and “like” the Penn State men’s volleyball page on Facebook.
