Men's Volleyball: Nittany Lions prove their might

It was a bittersweet ending for a team that entered the tournament at the highest seed — second — in the history of its program. Newcomer head coach Sam Shweisky led the team to its most victories since 2003, and Saturday marked Princeton’s first appearance in the finals since winning the EIVA title in 1998.

Saturday also marked the last game for senior co-captains and three-year starters outside hitter Carl Hamming and middle blocker Jeff McCown. The two led a team full of new starters that included sophomore setter Scott Liljestrom; freshman outside hitter Pat Schwagler, who was named EIVA Top Newcomer of the Year and joined Liljestrom on the second-team All-EIVA honors; freshman middle blocker Michael Dye, who garnered All-Tournament honors for his performance in the postseason; and freshman libero Sean Cotter, who started at his position all season.

The Tigers got off to an uncharacteristically fiery start in the first set.

Having used the first game — or two — to get their bearings for the better part of the season, they jumped to a 6-5 lead early in the first. Hoping to generate momentum, Dye fired a kill that put the Tigers up 14-9.

But the seasoned Nittany Lions would not give up easily and took back the lead, 24-23. New fire from junior outside hitter Vincent Tuminelli and Dye tied the game at 26, but the Tigers faltered and Penn State created a gap of two points for the remainder of the match. Dye and Tuminelli hit .524 and .448 attack percentages, respectively.

“As soon as we were up, I thought we needed to keep pushing, because they were definitely going to start fighting,” Dye said after the match. “It was definitely exciting [to be ahead], but when they kept coming back, part of me was worried, but part of me had confidence our team would pull through.”

Undeterred, Princeton chipped away at a Penn State lead early in the second set to tie the game at 22. The game went back and forth until two kills from outside hitter Ryan Wolf put the Nittany Lions up for another two-point gap. Penn State middle blocker Max Lipsitz, who was named All-America, fired two kills to put Penn State up two games to none.

All season, the Tigers have rallied, but they were unable to overcome the 5-0 Penn State advantage in the third set. Penn State dominated, finishing the third match 30-13.

“We feel like games one and two we put a great match out there,” Shweisky said. “We were a couple points short in both sets, and had a ball bounced a different way, it could have been a much different outcome. I won’t speak for these guys, but I’m pretty proud of them and how hard they worked.”