It all came full circle Wednesday night for Mark Pavlik.
Pavlik as a local high school volleyball player would often travel with his team to Pittsburgh University to scrimmage the college’s women’s volleyball team. Almost 50 years later Pavlik was back at his hometown university – this time walking the sidelines in his final season of a Hall of Fame coaching career.
It was a fitting venue for Pavlik to have one final showdown against Penn State’s longtime rival. And it was just as fitting for the fourth-most winningest coach in college men’s volleyball history and tack on another win.
No. 17 Penn State limited No. 15 Ohio State to less than .150 attack percentage in each of the final two games of its 27-25, 20-25, 25-20, 25-20 non-conference victory.
The Nittany Lions playing in front of a crowd of 1,047 people out-hit the Buckeyes for the match .277 to .229 and had five players with at least five blocks.
Setter Michael Schwob and middle attacker Gaige Gabriel both led the Nittany Lions with five blocks, including each player having four blocks in the final two games. Outside attacker Matthew Luoma also contributed four blocks and a match-high 12 digs.
Along with the defensive performance, Matt Luoma added 13 kills on a .333 attack percentage.
Outside attacker Sean Harvey finished with a match-high 20 kills and hit .472 against the Buckeyes. In addition, Harvey committed one attack error in the final two games and capped off the match with a game-high five kills in the fourth game.
Opposite Shane Wetzel in the loss had a team-high 14 kills, while middle attacker Eliel Salva-Torress had 12 kills on a .450 attack percentage. Salva-Torress was one of two Buckeyes to more than .250 against the Nittany Lions.
Ohio State entered this match having hit more than .400 in every match during its three-match winning streak.
The Buckeyes were held to a match-low .118 attack percentage in the final game. Penn State also opened the game on a 6-2 run that four Ohio State attack errors and two kills from Harvey.
Harvey with the third game tied at 17-17 had back-to-back kills to jumpstart a 4-0 run. The Nittany Lions closed out the game on an 8-3 run that was capped off with a game-winning ace from Luoma.
Setter Daniel Henwood Rodriguez guided the Buckeyes’ offense to a .458 attack percentage and one attack error en route to a second-game victory. The setter also had the game-winning ace to even the match.
Ohio State had four aces on its first 10 points of the first game, including back-to-back aces from Wetzel to open the match.
The Buckeyes led by as many as five points before the Nittany Lions rallied and went on a 6-1 run to take a 21-20 lead. In addition, Penn State overcame two Ohio State game-points to win the game in overtime on a Harvey kill.
Penn State with this victory is on a four-match winning streak against Ohio State dating back to the 2023 NCAA Tournament quarterfinals.