WHO: Men's Volleyball vs No. 9 Penn State
WHERE: RAC Gym, Fairfax, Va.
FINAL SCORE: Mason 3, Penn State 1
KEY PLAYERS: Jack Wilson – 26 kills, .340 hitting, 2 service aces; Johnny Gomez – 20 digs (career-high)

Fairfax, Va. – Seniors Paco Velez and Dom Edgley could not have scripted a better Senior Night as George Mason University's men's volleyball team fought back from a set behind to earn its first win over EIVA archrival No. 9 Penn State in eight years in the packed RAC on Saturday night.

MATCH NOTES

-Redshirt junior outside hitter Jack Wilson showed no rust after sitting out the last few weekends and had a stellar performance off the bench to finish with a match-high 26 kills. Wilson had the second best attacking efficiency among the Patriots and added two aces, one of them for his first involvement in the match. Junior libero Johnny Gomez was just as impressive on the defensive end and had no reservations going after every ball, earning himself a career-high 20 digs.

-Penn State's leading attacker this season, Chris Nugent, had a team-high performance with 11 kills, but the Offensive Player of the Week was held to only .059 hitting. Aiden Albrecht and and Matt Seifert also added double digits with 10 kills apiece while libero Royce Clemens led the Nittany Lions defensively with 19 digs.

-Kills by Nugent, Albrecht and Seifert helped Penn State jump out to a 6-3 lead in the first set, but Mason quickly tied it up at 7 by capitalizing on some Nittany Lion errors. The Patriots stuck with their opponent for the next few minutes, but Penn State managed a 4-0 run on Seifert's serve to grab the highest lead of the set at 18-13. The lead grew even after Mason's head coach Jay Hosack had exhausted his two timeouts and a Nugent kill made it seven at 21-14. The Patriots never backed down, however, and went on a 9-3 run with a combination of aces, incredible defense and relentless blocking to get within one at 24-23 and fire up the full-capacity crowd at the RAC. The Nittany Lions withstood the pressure, however, and set up a successful side-out play that resulted in an Albrecht kill and settled the first set at 25-23.

-The Patriots carried the momentum into the second set and got off to a 10-4 start with five kills by Wilson and two-man blocks against Albrecht and Matthew McLaren, at the hands of Edgley, junior outside hitter Christian Malias, redshirt freshman middle blocker Garrett Kollar, and sophomore setter Brian Negron. The Patriots showed iron composure to tame all of Penn State's attempts to gain momentum and never let the Nittany Lions within fewer than two before Negron and Edgley linked up at the net once again to shut Albrecht for 25-21 in the second set.

-Wilson got the Patriots going in the third set with a kill for 1-0, but Mason's attackers hit a momentary slump after that and Penn State won seven of the next nine points to take a 7-3 lead. Mason tried to get back on level terms right away, but the Nittany Lions withstood the initial pressure. After coming within one on six separate occasions with kills by four different players, the last one by substitute middle blocker Graham Gresham, a kill by Popov tied the set at 13 all off of one of Malias' four assists in the match. Although an attack error by Nugent even put Mason in front at 14-13, the Patriots committed three consecutive errors of different kind to force a timeout by Hosack at 16-14 Penn State. The Nittany Lions used the granted momentum to control the set for the following minutes, but that is when Mason's block stepped up to spark a 6-1 run to put the Patriots ahead 23-20. Gresham's hands were live barriers for the Nittany Lions and he played a role in three decisive blocks in the run, twice partnered by Malias and once by Negron. Following a timeout called by experienced head coach Mark Pavlik, Penn State came back on level terms at 23 all with a kill by Seifert and a block by Nugent and Kevin Gear, but Mason responded with a kill on a setter attack by Negron to make it 24-23. The next play resulted in a long rally that finished successfully for Mason as Gomez provided for Wilson, who closed the set at 25-23 with yet another kill.

-The beginning of the fourth set was a dog fight and it wasn't until a Penn State miscalculation that led to a Popov ace that one of the teams pulled away by two points, 9-7. Spencer Sauter culminated a 5-1 Penn State run in the same manner to put the Nittany Lions ahead by two at 12-10, a lead that lasted longer than Mason's. Wilson then made two key plays for Mason to first tie the set at 15 all and then to assist Edgley at the net for a block on Sauter that put the Patriots back in the lead, 17-16. An attack error by Seifert on the following play doubled Mason's lead and forced Pavlik to call his first timeout of the set. Two kills by Jalen Penrose and one by Seifert were at the heart of a 4-1 Penn State run that marked a change of momentum and allowed the Nittany Lions to take control of the set. An attack error by Wilson gave Penn State a double set point at 24-22 and introduced the possibility of a fifth set to the drama, but Mason was having none of that. Wilson quickly redeemed himself for the previous error to get the Patriots within one with a kill for 24-23 and a block by Popov and Edgley on Nugent sent the set into extra points. The Nittany Lions squandered three additional set points and ultimately paid for it after kills by Wilson and Malias and a Wilson-Gresham block on Sauter sent the RAC crowd into a state of euphoria for the final 29-27 in the fourth set, extending the Patriots' winning streak to seven matches.

STAT BREAKDOW

-The two teams were tied in kills on the night with 53 apiece, but Mason did slightly better than the Nittany Lions' .173 performance with .199 attack efficiency.

-As a consolation, Penn State outdug the Patriots, 53-48.

-Popov, Edgley, and Malias added to Wilson's two for Mason's five aces on the night, while Seifert, Albrecht, and Sauter were the providers for Penn State's three.

-Mason was absolutely dominant at the net despite Penn State's size, outblocking the Nittany Lions 13-7.5.

NEXT ON THE COURT

The prestigious win earned the Patriots the second seed in the EIVA Championship, which sets up a semi-final tie against Harvard on Thursday in University Park, Pa.