USC
Penn State
Trojans Fall To Penn State, 3-0
February 06, 2004 | Men's Volleyball
Feb. 6, 2004
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Behind a match-high 17 kills from sophomore Kevin Wentzel, the 11th-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team downed Southern California in three games (30-18, 30-24, 30-22) in front of 1,627 fans at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions improve to 6-3 on the season while the Trojans fall to 2-9.
"We did a great job defensively and our block touched a lot of balls," said head coach Mark Pavlik. "[Kevin] Wentzel had one of the best matches I have seen him play. I'll take the win."
Aiding Wentzel on the offensive attack was sophomore Matt Proper with 15 kills and junior Keith Kowal with 12 kills. The Nittany Lions had all six offensive starters record more than two kills and hit above .273 for the match, including Wentzel (.542), Proper (.310) and Kowal (.647). Sophomore Nate Meerstein recorded nine kills on 11 attempts with one error to hit .727 while freshman Aaron Smith posted four kills and hit .273. As a squad, the Nittany Lions outhit the Trojans, .459 to .175.
Sophomore setter Dan O'Dell directed the Penn State offense with 51 assists while senior libero Ricky Mattei posted a match-high 11 digs, good for his fourth double-digit dig match of the season.
Both teams recorded 4.5 blocks as Kowal posted three blocks for Penn State and Wentzel chipped in two. Wentzel also notched two of the Lions' six service aces in the match, with one each also coming from O'Dell, Proper, Smith and senior Josh Mowrey.
Southern California was led by junior Blake Tippett with 15 kills as sophomore Joao Grangeiro added six kills. Junior setter J.T. Gilmour dished out 26 assists while junior Pedro Leal notched four digs. Junior middle Chris McKniff recorded a team-high four blocks in the outing.
In the first match of the evening, Lewis defeated UC San Diego in four games (30-27, 22-30, 30-23, 30-27) to open up the Penn State Invitational. The Flyers improve to 5-5 while the Tritons fall to 4-5.
Lewis' Fabiano Barreto led the squad with 18 kills while both Jeff Soler and Jared Dayton recorded nine apiece. Lewis hit .180 for the match while UC San Diego attacked at a .216 clip. The Tritons' Jim Waller and Adam Toren both pounded 15 kills while Kevin Keyser and Andy Rupp both notched 10.
Brandon Sisk led the Flyers with 41 assists while UCSD's Nate Jones dished out 58 assists for his team.
UC San Diego's libero, Tai Dickens, led all players with 16 digs while Waller added 10. For Lewis, libero Ryan Stuntz posted 15 digs.
Lewis won the blocking battle, 17.5 to 10.5, led by Greg Pochopien with 11 and Jared Dayton with seven. Kevin Keyser posted five blocks for the Tritons.
