M. volleyball must bring its best to upset Nittany Lions

David slew Goliath. NC State beat Houston. VHS won out over Beta. The men's volleyball team, therefore, might beat Penn State.

Tonight at 7:30p.m. in State College, Penn., Princeton (16-10 overall, 8-7 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) will face-off against the Nittany Lions (24-5, 14-0) in the semifinals of the EIVA playoffs. Penn State is seeded first to the Tigers' fifth. The winner of this game will face the winner of Rutgers-Newark vs. George Mason in the finals for the chance to advance to the NCAA Volleyball Final Four in Long Beach, Calif.

Penn State is by far the most significant obstacle in Princeton's path toward reaching that goal. The Tigers will have to play the game of their lives to win.

For years, Penn State has been the bane of every other team in the EIVA, and this year has been no exception. Endowed with the advantages of being a massive public university and having a scholarship program, the team's smaller adversaries are often overwhelmed in the face of the Nittany Lions' talent.

Fourteen letter winners return from the squad that won the EIVA championship last year, including 2002-2003 conference Player of the Year Carlos Guerra. Guerra's achievement is nothing special for this team, however — all of the last seven players to win that award have come from Penn State.

Just for good measure, the Nittany Lions also feature the conference Newcomer of the Year in freshman setter Dan O'Dell, along with seven players named to the first and second all-conference teams.

For most of the season, Penn State has been ranked ninth in the nation by all the volleyball polling services. The squad is without a doubt the Leviathan of the EIVA.

That does not make them unbeatable, however, and if any team is going to take them down it will be the Tigers. Princeton took one game from the Nittany Lions in their meeting at Dillon Gym earlier this season, and the Tigers are a far better team now than they were then.

In particular, Princeton has improved defensively — precisely the area in which it must play almost perfectly in order to handle Penn State. The blocking presence of six feet, six inches sophomore Sean Vitousek and 6' 8" freshman Brian Hamming, both middle hitters, will be critical to warding off the powerful Nittany Lion attack.

Also essential will be the team's ability to handle their opponent's powerful jump servers, the factor that spelled doom for Princeton in the squads' match-up in State College this year.

There is little that can be done about the fact that Penn State will play well offensively, however. The defense will simply have to do its best to stop whatever it can.

The real key to a victory in this game is something completely under the Tigers' control, and it just happens to be that old sports cliché — execution.

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"The most important thing we can do to win this match is play mistake-free volleyball," Hamming said. "With their depth, Penn State will exploit any weakness we show them."

Easier said than done, but Princeton is peaking at the right time. Coming off the surprising victory over Juniata in the first round, the Tigers are playing with fewer errors than they have all season.

Under the leadership of its co-captains, junior setter Jason Liljestrom and senior opposite Dennis Alshuler, the Princeton attack has been functioning like a well-oiled machine.

The only thing that can hold them back at this point is if they allow themselves to get psyched out by their high-ranked opponent. But that doesn't seem to be a problem.

"We can beat these guys," Vitousek said, "if we go in with the intention of slaying the beast."