No. 7 Penn State men’s volleyball (4-1) tallied its first loss of the season to No. 8 Stanford (5-0) in a 3-0 sweep Friday night in its first of two games in the First Point Collegiate Challenge in Austin, Texas. The Nittany Lions had defeated their prior opponents by a collective score of 12-2, but couldn’t get their footing against the Cardinal.

Penn State couldn’t find a rhythm tonight as it struggled with a hitting percentage of .195 and 13 errors.

How It Happened

Penn State got on the board first with a kill by Owen Rose, followed by a Michal Kowal service error, and a kill by John Kerr to make it 2-1 for the Nittany Lions. Stanford then notched back-to-back scores off a Rose service error and an attack error by Kerr.

Penn State then went on a 5-1 run with the help of three Stanford errors. The run ended with a Toby Ezeonu attack error, but the Nittany Lions got the point back off a Kowal kill to make it an 8-5 lead for Penn State.

Stanford struck back with a 4-0 run to recapture the lead until kills by Kerr and Rose gave the lead back to Penn State at 11-10. A Kowal service error tied the set again but consecutive Stanford errors and Michael Valenzi’s kill gave the Nittany Lions a three-point lead at the first media timeout.

Out of the break, Stanford got back in the scoring column with a kill by Wagner that was followed by his service error to make it 16-13 in favor of Penn State. Nathaniel Gates then earned a kill for the Cardinal but the point was in the null of an Alex Rottman service error.

Stanford then proceeded to go on a 6-1 run off of five Penn State errors and a kill by Will Rottman to make it 20-18 Cardinal as the Nittany Lions used their first timeout. After the timeout, Penn State struck back with a kill by Kerr but the Cardinal scored twice more to make it 22-19 Stanford. The Cardinal momentum continued as they scored three of the next five points and captured the first set 25-21.

The second set started 4-1 Stanford with the help of two Penn State errors and kills by Will Rottman and Adam Chang. Penn State scored off a Will Rottman service error and an Ezeonu kill that followed a kill by Alex Rottman to make it 6-3 Stanford.

Things didn’t get easier for Penn State. Stanford went on a 4-2 run to extend the lead by five at 10-5 as Penn State used another timeout. Kerr got a much-needed kill out of the timeout, but it was countered by a Will Rottman kill for the Cardinal.

Penn State started to get some help as it scored three of the next five points off Stanford errors to make it 13-9 in favor of the Cardinal. Alex Rottman tallied a kill but then Penn State went on a quick 3-0 run off a Moses service error, a Kerr kill, and an Ezeonu ace, the first of the match for Penn State, to cut into the Cardinal lead at 14-12.

Stanford scored off of three kills and a service error in a 4-2 run that pushed the lead back out to 19-15 and forced Penn State to call a timeout. Both teams exchanged scores out of the break with Penn State scoring off two service errors and Stanford scoring off two kills.

Penn State then scored consecutive times off of Kowal’s kill and an Alex Rottman’s error to bring the set within two at 21-19 as Stanford used its first timeout of the match. Stanford notched a kill out of its break and Kerr notched one in return for Penn State.

Both teams exchanged kills once again, this time at the credit of Will Rottman and Kowal to make it 23-21 Stanford. The Cardinal then proceeded to score back-to-back kills, both by Will Rottman, to earn their second set at 25-21.

With its back against the wall, Penn State started its potential final set of the night with a 3-1 run. Stanford then quickly scored off a kill and an error to tie the set at 3-3. Penn State scored off a Chang service error that was followed by a 4-1 run by Stanford with three of its four points coming off errors.

Ezeonu then tallied two kills for the Nittany Lions to make it 7-6 Stanford. The Cardinal went on another run that consisted of a kill by Nathan Lietzke and two Penn State errors. Kerr struck back for the Nittany Lions with two kills that contributed to a 3-1 run. The run was short-lived after a Kowal service error ended it, but Kerr notched another kill that was followed by a Rose ace to tie the set at 12-12.

The Cardinal regained the lead twice, but Penn State struck back both times to tie the set back up until Moses earned a kill for Stanford before the media timeout. Following the break, Penn State tied the set yet again at 15-15 off a Will Rottman service error.

Stanford proceeded to go on a 5-2 run with a timeout in the middle of it as it extended its lead to 20-17. Rose scored a desperately needed kill for the Nittany Lions but the Cardinal tallied two more kills to make it 22-18 as Penn State used its fourth timeout of the match.

After the much-needed break, Kevin Lamp earned a clutch ace for the Cardinal that forced Penn State to use another timeout at 23-18. Stanford completed the sweep by scoring off a ball-handling error and a kill by Gates.

Takeaways

• The team had an abysmal hitting percentage of .195 compared to Stanford’s .341. Owen Rose was the only Nittany Lion to hit .300.
• This is Penn State’s first loss in the First Point Collegiate Challenge after going 2-0 in last year’s event against No. 8 Stanford and No. 5 Pepperdine.
• Despite being swept, Penn State kept it close for most of the match with two of the three sets being decided by four points.

What’s Next?

Penn State will try to bounce back against No. 1 UCLA at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 20.