No. 13 Penn State men’s volleyball (21-10, 11-3 EIVA) swept its way through the EIVA Tournament over the weekend at Rec Hall to take its 19th conference championship in the last 20 years and claim an NCAA Tournament berth.

Chris Nugent led the Nittany Lions with 15 kills in its 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-23) semifinal win against Princeton Thursday night to move on to the championship match against Saint Francis.

Penn State bamboozled the Red Flash in the final just a year after Saint Francis pulled off the upset over Mark Pavlik’s squad to end its streak of 18-straight conference titles. A crowd of 1,303 came out Saturday night to see the Nittany Lions easily sweep 25-19, 25-14, and 25-20 behind a team-high nine kills from both Nugent and Aidan Albrecht.

After missing out on the NCAA Tournament hosted at Rec Hall in 2016, the Nittany Lions return as a five-seed to face fourth-seeded Hawaii on Tuesday, May 2 at 8 p.m. The winner of that game will move on to the semifinals Thursday night at 8 p.m. against No. 1 Ohio State, whose St. John Arena will host the entire tournament.  Both of these matches will be broadcast live on NCAA.com and Saturday’s title match will also be streamed live on ESPNU at 7 p.m.