UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Facing the conference's top seed on its home court, the No. 3 seed George Mason men's volleyball team nearly forced a fifth set, but the Patriots' upset bid fell just short in the EIVA Championship match. Penn State, undefeated in the conference during regular season play, defeated Mason 3-1 on Saturday night at Rec Hall to claim the EIVA championship.

Set scores were 25-16, 25-21, 20-25, 25-22 as Mason wrapped up its season with an overall record of 13-17. The Nittany Lions, meanwhile, improved to 23-5 as they earned the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

For their outstanding play in the tourney, junior outside hitter Michael Kvidahl and junior middle blocker Andrew Dentler were tabbed to the All-Championship team.

Opening the first set by playing to a 2-2 draw, the Nittany Lions scored four unanswered points to jump out to a 6-2 lead. Mason then called a timeout and successfully ended the PSU run, winning the next point on a kill by freshman middle blocker Hunter Stevens before registering two more points to climb back to within two points, 7-5. However, Penn State responded with a 4-1 run to take an 11-6 lead and held the Patriots at bay the rest of the way to win the first set, 25-16.

Falling behind 4-1 early in the second set, the Patriots rallied to pull back to within one point, 4-3. Holding PSU to just a two point lead all the way to 9-7, the Nittany Lions broke open the set with a six point run to go up, 15-7, and maintained the advantage to 17-10.

Mason mounted a rally, using a thrilling seven-point run to knot the set at 17-17. Kvidahl started the rally with a kill followed by a service ace. Junior outside hitter Mark Jones recorded a kill, Stevens and Dentler came up with a big block and Kvidahl served up three consecutive service aces to tie the set. The run was halted as Kvidahl's streak hot serving ended on an error, but Dentler and Kvidahl recorded the next two kills of the match to give the Patriots the lead at 19-18. However, Mason was unable to maintain the lead as PSU closed the set with a 7-2 run to win, 25-21.

Both teams battled to a 7-7 draw in the third set, only to see the Patriots take a 9-7 lead with kills by Dentler and Jones. In an exciting stretch, the two squads exchanged points to arrive at a 15-15 draw before PSU registered an attack error and Kvidahl recorded a kill to put the Patriots ahead, 17-15, and force a Nittany Lion timeout. PSU tied the game at 18, only to see Mason close the third set with a 7-2 run for the 25-20 set win. PSU's Aaron Russell gave the Patriots the lead for good on a service error, and Kvidahl recorded yet another service ace before committing a service error. However, the Patriots took the ball right back on another PSU service error before Dentler and junior middle blocker Piotr Dabrowski came up with a big block, Stevens served up an ace and the Lions committed a service error to lock up the set for Mason, 25-20.

Mason continued its hot hitting, opening the fourth set on a 3-0 run that featured kills from Dentler and Jones and another service ace by Kvidahl. The Patriots maintained the lead until Penn State knotted the game at 5-5 and both squads exchanged points to end up at 8-8. With the score at 10-9 in favor of the Patriots, Mason used a 3-0 run to assume its largest lead of the set at 13-9. Stevens and Kvidahl both tallied kills, while Kvidahl continued his hot serving with another ace during the streak. However, PSU responded with a run of its own to again knot the game at 13-13. Swapping points to arrive at a 22-22 draw, the Nittany Lions earned the match point with three consecutive points to win 25-22.

Dentler posted game-highs in both kills and assists, registering 15 kills and six blocks. Jones added 12 kills, and Kvidahl totaled 10 kills and a game-high seven service aces. Junior setter Javier Perez dished out 34 assists.  PSU was led by a game-high 15 kills from Joe Sunder, while Edgardo Goas recorded a game-high 44 assists and Aaron Russell and Nick Turko totaled a team-best four blocks apiece.