April 30, 2009

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Fifth-seeded George Mason concluded its 2009 men's volleyball season with a 3-0 loss to No. 5 Penn State, the top seed in the conference tournament, in an EIVA Championship Semifinal Match on Thursday evening at Rec Hall in University Park, Pa.

Penn State (26-3) got off to a hot start, scoring the first six points of the opening set. Included among those six points were four service aces by senior middle blocker Max Holt, who also finished with three kills in the set for a total of seven points. Mason (14-16) was unable to recover from the Nittany Lions initial flurry of points, falling by a final score of 30-19.

The Patriots kept the score close midway through the second set before Penn State took over. With Mason trailing 16-14, the Nittany Lions went on a 4-0 run to take a 20-14 lead. A pair of Patriot errors followed by back-to-back kills by William Price and Ryan Sweitzer fueled the Penn State spurt. The Patriots were unable to close the gap, taking a 30-22 loss to fall behind 2-0 in the match.

With the score knotted at four in the third set, Penn State went on a 7-1 run to take an 11-5 lead. The deficit proved to be insurmountable for Mason, as the Nittany Lions went on to take the match with a 30-21 win in the third set. Penn State hit .562 as a team in the final set.

A pair of Patriot seniors suited up in the green and gold uniform for the final time on Thursday evening. Opposite hitter Kyle Gramit, a three-time First-Team EIVA All-East selection, wrapped up his career with 11 kills on 27 swings. Middle blocker Brandon McLaughlin, who entered the match as the national leader in blocks per set, finished with a pair of blocks in the match.

Mason advanced to the semifinals with a first-round victory over eighth-seeded Harvard (31-29, 31-33, 30-19, 30-26) and a quarterfinal win over fourth-seeded Springfield College (24-30, 30-24, 30-27, 31-29). The Patriots entered the semifinals on a three-match winning streak, including a win in the regular-season finale against NJIT.

In the first semifinal, second-seeded Juniata College (18-7) downed third-seeded Saint Francis (15-15) in four sets to advance to the championship match against host Penn State. Set scores from the first semifinal were 30-28, 26-30, 30-26 and 33-31. The EIVA Championship will be decided on Saturday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at Rec Hall. The winner will earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Men's Volleyball Championship, scheduled to begin on May 7 in Provo, Utah.

2009 EIVA CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT
EIVA First Round
Wednesday, April 22
No. 6 Princeton def. No. 7 Rutgers-Newark, 3-0
No. 5 George Mason def. No. 8 Harvard, 3-1

EIVA Quarterfinals
Saturday, April 25
No. 3 Saint Francis def. No. 6 Princeton, 3-2
No. 5 George Mason def. No. 4 Springfield, 3-1

EIVA Semifinals (Hosted at Penn State's Rec Hall)
Thursday, April 30
No. 2 Juniata def. No. 3 Saint Francis, 3-1
No. 1 Penn State def. No. 5 George Mason, 3-0

EIVA Championship (Hosted at Penn State's Rec Hall)
Saturday, May 2
No. 2 Juniata vs. No. 1 Penn State, 7 p.m.

EIVA Championship Seeding
1. Penn State
2. Juniata
3. Saint Francis
4. Springfield
5. George Mason
6. Princeton
7. Rutgers-Newark
8. Harvard