UNIVERSITY PARK — Finally, the Penn State men’s volleyball team gets to come home.
The No. 5 Nittany Lions have been on the road for the first three weeks of the season — racking up some high-quality wins — but the Rec Hall faithful will finally get to see them play in person.
The team (4-1) hosts the Penn State Invitational on Friday and Saturday, and a very familiar face will be in town, though not on the other side of the net. It starts with No. 9 and defending national champion Ohio State meeting Cal- Baptist at 5 p.m. and the Nittany Lions facing Mount Olive at 7:30 p.m. Friday. The Buckeyes and Penn State then trade opponents for 5 and 7:30 p.m. matches Saturday.
With those four teams on hand, and a boys’ club tournament also in town, campus will be busy with volleyball.
“It will keep us hopping this weekend,” Nittany Lion head coach Mark Pavlik said. “But, I can get in the car and be home in half-an-hour. That’s the beauty of it.”
That certainly is preferred over the experience of the last three weeks.
The season began with a win at Ohio State. Then Penn State had to travel to No. 6 Lewis and No. 13 Loyola- Chicago. That trip included a bus breakdown before the Nittany Lions ever left State College, a snowstorm in Pennsylvania, another one the next day when they finally got to Illinois and a match delayed when the officials were late because of the storm.
Penn State lost to Lewis and beat Loyola between all the flakes.
Last weekend, they returned to Columbus, again with no match against the Buckeyes, to score wins over No. 7 Stanford and No. 12 Pacific.
“We all are happy there’s no road trip this week,” Pavlik said. “I’m so glad I don’t have to get on a bus on Thursday or Friday and think about getting back on a bus on Saturday, thinking, where’s my pillow?”
Even with all those hassles, Pavlik was happy with the results.
“Three quality wins on the road, dealing with travel issues and everything else we’ve done,” Pavlik said. “I’m pretty pleased right now.”
Feeling cool
The suffering may soon be over in Rec Hall.
Buried in the minutes from the Board of Trustees meeting on Jan. 20 was a proposal to add air conditioning to the main gym of Rec Hall.
AltieriSeborWeiber LLC was appointed to design the addition of air conditioning to the 82-year-old building, including two new air handling units, two new cooling coils and insulation on existing duct-work. The work is expected to begin as soon as the men’s season is over and should be done in time for the beginning of the women’s season.
“I have not been consulted on that but I’m all for it,” Pavlik joked.
Most affected will be summer camps for the two volleyball programs and the annual Happy Volley girls’ club tournament on Memorial Day weekend.
The move was spurred by oppressive heat during the women’s opening weekend matches against Oregon and Southern California last August, temperatures that hit 105 degrees in the building last summer affecting camps, and past instances of the wood floorboards buckling from high heat and humidity.
“I liked it hot. I liked other people struggling and we train in it,” said women’s head coach Russ Rose. “But, I’m not going to be the guy that says, ‘No, let’s keep it hot in there,’ and somebody dies and I’m the one who said to keep it hot in there. Plus the liklihood of somebody dying is somebody who’s overweight and old like me.”
Good start
Pavlik is pretty happy with the way his team has begun the season. While on paper the Nittany Lions returned all but one starter, there are actually four men who saw little or no playing time last season who have stepped into the lineup. With red-shirt freshmen outside hitter Nick Goodell and libero Connor Curry, along with the Russell brothers (freshman middle hitter Aaron and sophomore outside hitter Peter), the Nittany Lions are in good shape.
Even with all those changes, the team has not been lacking for leadership and there have been no chemistry issues.
“It’s a different person every time,” Pavlik said. “The personality is gelling a little quicker than I thought it would.”
The steadiness on the court in early matches has been a surprise. While there has been plenty of emotion, they are able to brush off troubles quickly and not let it get them down.
“I didn’t think they would have that this early because of the new guys and the youth,” Pavlik said. “I think that’s their personality. This is a group of guys that say, ‘What’s my next task at hand?’ They don’t get caught up in a lot of things.”
Gordon Brunskill can be reached at 231-4608.
