Win out. That’s what Penn State men’s volleyball needs to do in its final four regular season games to have a chance at clinching another regular season EIVA title.

Despite having a losing record of 8-14, the Nittany Lions are tied for second place with Harvard in the EIVA standings with a record of 5-3. They are two games behind first-place Princeton and will play at Rec Hall next week. The Nittany Lions don’t completely control their destiny yet, as a Princeton sweep over Harvard this week would give the Tigers the title. However, Penn State will first need to take care of business this weekend against George Mason before it’s presented with the opportunity for the title.

Since Penn State went winless in the Outrigger Invitational in Hawaii, it has bounced back by winning three of its last four games in conference play. Its only loss in this stretch came in its second game against Charleston when it lost in four sets. Due to that, the Nittany Lions still have the opportunity to clinch two things that are very meaningful to them, especially in a season where they have had to play 16 games on the road or neutral sites: a first-round bye and home-court advantage.

Since a first-round bye was established in the EIVA Tournament in 2021, the Nittany Lions have always clinched a top-two seed in the six-team tournament. Due to that, they still haven’t had to play a quarterfinal match in the EIVA Tournament.

With that process, Penn State has had a home-court advantage in the EIVA Tournament since 2021. It has taken advantage of this by winning three of the last four EIVA Tournaments. The only year the team didn’t win it was in 2022 when Princeton won the tournament and eliminated the Nittany Lions in the semifinals. After sweeping Sacred Heart in a two-game series last weekend, the EIVA remains wide open, with everything up for grabs.

“The reward is everything is still under our control,” head coach Mark Pavlik said. “It’s the reward for sticking together and doing what they’ve done. They haven’t let things get away from them to where they’ve got to rely on others. Our goal is to keep getting better, and I think we took some steps [against Sacred Heart] for that.”

The road to clinching for Penn State will begin this Friday on the road in a two-game series against its storied rival, George Mason. The last time these two faced each other at George Mason’s arena was in 2023 when the Nittany Lions completed the sweep over the Patriots in a two-game series.

Even though George Mason has been struggling as of late with three straight losses, it has a winning record of 13-10, with 10 of those wins coming at home. It also holds a conference record of 4-4 — one game behind Penn State and Harvard for second place in the EIVA standings. For that reason, along with past experiences, Pavlik knows how difficult it is to play at George Mason, considering the implications it has on the standings.

“It’s a place that we know pretty well,” Pavlik said. “For our matches with them, it’s always packed. The Mason alumni that are in the greater D.C. area always come back. It’s just been one where they are very vocal, and they will get on our guys. They’ll get on me. You got to survive these matches that way.”

Ahead of the final two series against George Mason and Princeton, Pavlik mentioned the improvements the team has made since the Sacred Heart series like its hitting percentage and physicality. Going into the first match against George Mason, he said that he wants those things to carry on into the final stretch of the season.

“That’s one of our building blocks that we’ve talked about just getting better at, and if we’re here now, let’s use that as our baseline,” Pavlik said. “With the Charleston match, we couldn’t sustain that level of play through a set, let alone now saying we’ve done it for two, let’s do it for three. So, we got to be ready for four really great matches, but right now, we are just concerned about Friday night’s match.”