Men's Volleyball

The men’s volleyball team fell to EIVA powerhouse No. 14 Penn State 3-0 in State College Thursday night. The loss doomed the Tigers’ (13-10 overall, 9-6 EIVA) chances of winning the league and will most likely end their season, taking away their only real shot at making the NCAA tournament.

On Thursday, Princeton (13-9 overall, 9-5 EIVA), the fourth seed will play the seemingly perpetually first seeded Nittany Lions (21-7, 13-1) in the semifinals. The last time Penn State lost an EIVA champion was 1998, when Princeton handed Penn State its last semifinal loss of the millennium and earned a ticket to the finals, which it won against Rutgers-Newark. Since then, however, Penn State has been virtually unstoppable in the conference.

In the final match of the regular season, the men’s volleyball team was swept by EIVA opponent George Mason at Dillon Gymnasium on Saturday. The Tigers (13-9 overall, 9-5 EIVA) hung close for the first two sets, losing 25-23 and 26-24, but let their final set of the regular season get away to the Patriots (15-11, 11-3), dropping it 25-19.

This year’s matchup between the men’s volleyball team and the Juniata Eagles could not have been more different from last season’s encounter. On Tuesday night, the Tigers cruised to an easy 3-1 victory on their home court, a much easier victory than their hard-fought 3-2 comeback the year before.

After starting the season with a strong win over No. 12 University of California, Santa Barbara, the men’s volleyball team struggled to maintain its performance against other top-ranked teams such as UC San Diego and league rival George Mason.The Tigers (4-2 overall, 2-1 EIVA) look to be turning it around, however, as they finish up a big two-win weekend over NYU and conference opponent NJIT.