UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania - The George Mason men's volleyball team drops one to #13 Penn State in straight sets.  The Patriots move to 11-11 on the season, while Penn State moves to 17-6.  The Green and Gold remain in fourth place in the EIVA standings.

The Nittany Lions won with set scores of: 25-18, 25-17, and 25-18.

Penn State came out firing, winning nine of the first 13 points.  Grabbing an early lead made it difficult for the Patriots to mount a comeback.  A few Penn State errors and kills from Jonathan Lutz and Joe Heim cut the lead down to four (22-18).   The Patriots comeback bid was cut short, as the Nittany Lions went on to win the set 25-18.

The Patriots were able to keep the second set very close.  This set included 10 tie scores and five lead changes.  At one point, Mason led in the set 11-10 after two straight kills from Christian Malias.  However, Penn State won four out of the next five points, forcing a George Mason timeout.  Penn State didn't look back from there, going on to win the set 25-17.

Radoslav Popov started off the third set with a kill to give the Patriots a one-point lead.  This set was closely fought and had five ties and three lead changes.  After going back and forth throughout the set, the Nittany Lions were able to get a five-point lead at 17-12.  Penn State went on to win the set and the match at 25-18 after a kill from Nick Goodell.

Jonathan Lutz led the Patriots for the second match in a row with a team-high 11 kills.  Lutz also contributed to defense, adding seven digs. Senior Joe Heim dished out a team-best 25 assists.  Meanwhile, Dave Lucas had double-digit digs (11) for the second match in a row to lead the Patriot defense.

The Nittany Lions were lead by Aaron Russell, who had a match-best 16 kills.  Taylor Hammond also dished out a match-high 34 assists.  Meanwhile, Peter Russell led the Penn State defense with 11 digs in the match.

Up Next: The Patriots hit the road to take on Rutgers-Newark on Friday, April 4 and NJIT on Saturday, April 5.