Feb. 18, 2011
By Kelsey Detweiler, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The No. 11 Penn State men's volleyball team will host another weekend of back-to-back matches against non-conference opponents Mount Olive and Lees McRae.
Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik began with a career record of 390-113. His Nittany Lions have recorded a 9-3 record overall to begin the season and have therefore added to Pavlik's total, giving him a growing overall record of 399-116. This weekend, Pavlik will be looking to make it an even 400.
The Nittany Lions play host to the Mount Olive Trojans on Friday, February 18 at 7 p.m. in the South Gym of Rec Hall. The Trojans are 11-2 overall this season and are an unbeaten 4-0 in conference play. However, Penn State holds a 3-0 all-time series record over the Trojan team.
On Saturday, February 19 Penn State will face Lees McRae in the South Gym of Rec Hall at 3 p.m. for the second match of the weekend. Lees McRae is and even 6-6 overall this season with a 2-1 conference record. This will be the first time that the Bobcats and Nittany Lions have every played against one another.
The weekend will be the last weekend that Penn State will play at home for a month's time as the team will be on the road for the next four consecutive weeks of play.
The Nittany Lions are coming off of a two-win weekend against Rutgers-Newark and Princeton, where many fresh faces were introduced to the Penn State line-up. Pavlik said that he was happy with the way his team performed this past weekend and he is looking forward to using the deep bench that he has to win big again this week.
Pavlik said that he is lucky enough to have talent in numbers on his roster, and plans on using his best line-up against the Trojans and the Bobcats.
"Two dogs one bone is a great thing to have," said Pavlik. "We're not playing guys because I like the way [Peter Russell] smiles or I like that [Tom Comfort] is from Buffalo and I feel sorry for him, it's the fact that the best group of guys that give us the opportunity to win are the guys who are going to be on the court. And we've got a good group of guys who compete hard every day and I'm pretty sure that we're not going to have the same line-up through the entire season or going to have the same starters."
The Penn State head coach said that he and his team are ready for this weekend and will be focusing on the same thing: winning.
"We'll do what we do every week and prepare for Mount Olive and Lees McRae," said Pavlik.
