Despite being unbeaten in EIVA Conference play heading into the regular-season series finale, Penn State men’s volleyball still has some work to do. Win one of the two matches against George Mason this weekend, and it will be the EIVA regular-season champions.

Since the Nittany Lions lost home-court advantage in the six-team EIVA Tournament last season for the first time, they are on the verge of regaining it. Every year, they have made this a goal because they have won three of the last four EIVA Tournaments hosted at Rec Hall, except in 2022. Along with that, they have the chance to finish unbeaten in EIVA conference play for the fourth time in the last five years.

The blue and white have been efficient at home, winning 10 of their 12 matches at Rec Hall, and haven’t lost since January 31, when they lost to Hawaii. However, they had to work hard to gain the ability to control their destiny, as they had to win back-to-back five-setters over Sacred Heart last weekend.

In both of those matches, Penn State had to overcome 2-1 set deficits and even faced a match point in the second match of the series. It pulled through in the end, as it hasn’t lost a five-setter in conference play in five years. Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik credits his team’s maturity and personality for pulling out these wins.

“Most young teams that are on their way to finding their personality at some point, they have to believe in what they do, and what I liked in both of those matches, when we had to play well, we did,” Pavlik said. “It’s a matter now of the competitive maturity kicking in and saying, ‘Okay, we can do it, then why can’t we do it [from] the beginning of game one?’ I think that’s the process the teams go through.”

In Pavlik’s final season with the Nittany Lions, the team has been playing well as of late, currently on a seven-match winning streak, unbeaten in EIVA Conference play, and has won 18 matches, three more than they won all of last season. Players like Sean Harvey and Owen Rose have been playing their best volleyball, with Harvey contributing 100 of Penn State’s points in the last five matches. Rose was named the EIVA Defensive Player of the Week as he averaged 1.8 blocks per set last weekend.

However, Pavlik and his team will finish the regular season against a George Mason team that has won 10 straight and only lost two in conference play. This will be the 142nd and 143rd meeting in this storied rivalry, and last year, when both teams met, the Nittany Lions had to win back-to-back five-setters. For that reason and the stakes that are on the line, Pavlik knows the huge implications that the outcome of this series will have on the EIVA Tournament.

“I think we’re in playoff mode right now, right where the outcome is important. If we win, we host. Pretty important. If we lose, we have to win again. We lose, we’re traveling,” Pavlik said. “[We] don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Well, win or lose, it doesn’t impact how we reach our final goals. This is playoff-type matches, and hopefully we’re ready for that.”

Despite Penn State being 18-7 and unbeaten in conference play, Pavlik’s final season has had its ups and downs. Penn State started the season with four consecutive wins before losing four straight. After the losing streak, it won seven straight before it lost all three matches on its West Coast road trip. Now, it is on a seven-match winning streak, and despite the ups and downs, Pavlik knows that the final stretch of the season is the most important one.

“Everything is geared towards this part of the season. This is what [the team] says they want to be in, so you gear everything toward that,” Pavlik said. “Hopefully, there’s some intentionality occurring as you go through practice where they say, ‘I’ve got to get better at this because maybe I came up short here. I don’t like the way I’m doing this.’ Take those steps and make sure you’re at your best during those matches. Hopefully, they heed that, and they listen to themselves as they go through the year.”