STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – George Mason University's men's volleyball team fought resiliently and gave a glimpse of the bright future ahead, but ended the season with a 3-1 defeat to No. 13 Penn State on Saturday.

Despite finding out that they would miss out on postseason for the first time since 2000 regardless of the result in their final conference match, the Patriots (13-14, 6-8 EIVA) came out determined to send their seniors with a win against their archrival. They led for the majority of the opening set and built a comfortable enough lead late on to win it 25-22 even though Penn State canceled their first two set points.

Due to holding the tiebreaker over Saint Francis (Pa.), the Nittany Lions (19-10, 11-3 EIVA) had already clinched the top seed for next week's EIVA Championship prior to their Senior Night match against Mason. As a result, Penn State will be back in Rec Hall on Thursday to host the Red Flash, Princeton, and Sacred Heart for the conference tournament semi-finals.

"Although the season is over, we are winners in my eyes with the way we played tonight and the way we were resilient all season long," head coach Jay Hosack said after the completion of his second season at the head of the program. "Hats off to my seniors for great careers here at George Mason.

"They represented the university, their families, and their teammates with pride, class, respect and integrity. I could not be happier for all of them." 

It was two of those seniors – opposite hitter Jack Wilson and outside hitter Radoslav Popov – who combined for nine of Mason's 13 kills in that first set. Wilson and Popov ended up leading the team on the night as well with 21 and 11 kills, respectively, on team-best .375 and .357 hitting performances. Wilson also had four of the eight service aces in the match – six for Mason, two for Penn State – while Popov added one.

Penn State had three players in double digits in Calvin Mende (24 kills, .543 hitting), Aiden Albrecht (16 kills, .355 hitting) and senior Chris Nugent (10 kills, 7 digs). Another Mason senior, libero Johnny Gomez, was most successful at taming the Nittany Lions' attacks, picking up team-high nine digs in the match.

The second set began in a similar fashion as the first, with Mason in control of the tempo. This time, however, once a kill by Mende tied the set at 16-16 the Patriots could not withstand Penn State's offensive pressure, which resulted in a 4-1 run. Despite being out of timeouts, Mason responded with kills by Wilson and freshman middle blocker Bryce Gatling – as well as an ace by junior setter Brian Negron – to tie the set at 21 all. Nevertheless, the Nittany Lions outscored their opponent 4-0 for the remainder of the set and went into the 10-minute intermission level on sets, 25-21.

Mende put Penn State in front with a kill for 1-0 in the third set, but a 4-1 Mason run put the home team in the role of a chaser once again. The Nittany Lions responded with an identical run right before mid-set to retake the lead and then extended the advantage to four on a block by Nugent and Kevin Gear, 19-15. With his 14^th kill in the match and a solo block against Nugent, Wilson sparked some momentum that allowed the Patriots to come within one, but several Mason attack errors and key kills by Penn State's pin hitters decided the set at 25-19 in favor of the Nittany Lions.

The teams saved the best for last and produced an absolute thriller of a fourth set, in which the largest lead was two and the score was tied 19 times. Penn State earned its own two-point cushion late on and held firmly to it as the Nittany Lions edged toward the win. Their fans first got up to clap for a match point after a kill by Albrecht for 24-22 but a kill by Wilson and a bad set by Luke Braswell sent them back to their seats, 24-24.

Two points later Braswell thought that he had redeemed himself with the match-winning point – and so did his teammates – but the Penn State celebrations were quickly cooled off by Hosack's successful challenge for net touch against Braswell, 25-25. The last kill in Wilson's intercollegiate career canceled Penn State's fourth match point to make it 26-26 shortly before Albrecht's last kill of the match granted his team the victory at 28-26.