BRONXVILLE, N.Y. - Penn State, the reigning 2013 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) champions, were selected as the favorite to capture the 2014 championship as voted by the league's eight head coaches. George Mason was selected fourth.
The Nittany Lions received nine points and seven of the eight first-place votes. Princeton (20) picked up the other first-place vote as the preseason No. 2 team while Harvard (23) and George Mason (32) rounded out the top four selections.
St. Francis (Pa.) (38), NJIT (50), Sacred Heart (52) and Rutgers-Newark (64) completed the predicted order of finish in positions five through eight.
The EIVA championship tournament will begin with semifinal action on Thursday, April 24th and the championship match on Saturday, April 26th. The location of the entire tournament will be the home facility of the No. 1 seed.
The winner of the championship match will then earn the conference's automatic qualifier into the 2014 NCAA Men's Volleyball National Championship hosted by Loyola-Chicago. The NCAA Championship Committee will seed the six teams in the championship giving a bye to the top two teams and matching the remaining four into two "Play-In" games scheduled to be played before the semifinal rounds.
Mason finished the 2012-13 campaign with an overall record of 15-12, 11-3 in the EIVA, earning the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. The Patriots lost a closely contested match to third-seeded Harvard in the 2013 EIVA Championship semifinals, 3-2.
Head coach Fred Chao returns for his 16th season at the helm, and has the task of replacing six student-athletes that earned All-EIVA honors last season, highlighted by Mark Jones, who was named Uvaldo Acosta Memorial EIVA Co-Player of the Year.
"This year's challenges will be different than the recent past,” said Chao. “We will take this season one match at a time and see how much we can progress by April."
Mason will begin their 2013-14 campaign with three straight matches on the road, beginning at Ohio State on January 18. The Patriots will open up at home on January 30 against the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedra.
Rank Team Points (First-Place) 2013 Record 2013 Finish (Post Season)
1. Penn State 9 (7) 23-8 (13-1 EIVA) #1 (EIVA Champion/NCAA Semifinal)
2. Princeton 20 (1) 13-10 (9-5 EIVA) #4 (EIVA Semifinals)
3. Harvard 23 18-9 (10-4 EIVA) #3 (EIVA Finals)
4. George Mason 32 15-12 (11-3 EIVA) #2 (EIVA Semifinals)
5. St. Francis (Pa.) 38 12-15 (7-7 EIVA) #5
6. NJIT 50 7-21 (4-10 EIVA) #6
7. Sacred Heart 52 4-19 (2-12 EIVA) #7
8. Rutgers-Newark 64 4-21 (0-14 EIVA) #8
