Blue White Illustrated

Ninth-ranked Penn State dropped a heartbreaker to No. 15 Saint Francis (Pa.), falling in four sets, 27-29, 28-26, 25-22, 25-23, in the semifinal round of the EIVA championships April 21 in Rec Hall. The league's regular-season champs, the Nittany Lions had been looking to claim their 18th consecutive EIVA tour- nament title and with it a spot in the NCAA tourney field, but instead they saw their season end abruptly. It was the second time this year that the Red Flash was triumphant in Rec Hall, as it also won in four sets on March 18. Penn State had swept its in-state rival in Loret- to in the first meeting of the season be- tween the teams. "I'd like to congratulate Saint Francis, [coach] Mike Rumbaugh and the admin- istration," Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik said. "They had a very good year, came in here and beat us twice, played some pretty good volleyball, and they de- serve to move on. "I think tonight we came in wanting to slow down [Steven] Braswell, wanting to slow down [Jeff] Hogan, and we did one out of the two and that wasn't good enough. "We were still in it, we had chances, we needed one point in game [two] to go up 2-0 and maybe that changes the timbre of the match. We never got that sideout, and we were in a dogfight from there on." In the decisive fourth set, the two teams were tied, 23-23, following a Saint Francis attack error. But a Nittany Lion attack error gave the visitors a 24-23 lead before a kill by Keith Marshman sent the Red Flash to its first-ever berth in the EIVA title game. The Lions finished their season at 19- 10 overall and 12-2 in the EIVA. Pavlik said afterward that the team had been in- consistent throughout the year, and those problems resurfaced in their final match. "The chance to end rallies before we gave enough opportunities for the other team to end it was one of the things that we really tried to address over the last [part] of the year," he said. "We could just never find the right combination to make it happen. It's probably the year that I will remember as the year of the lost side- out. "When you pour your heart and soul into obtaining excellence in anything you do, and the biggest matches and biggest opportunities that you want to take ad- vantage of [end disappointingly], it hurts. It hurts, but it should also serve as a mo- tivator. Really, that's the thing that is going to be interesting. [The loss] is going to give me something that I've not had for 18 years to start the next season with, and that starts tonight. So we'll take the dis- appointment and make sure that this pro- gram benefits from it." ■ MEN'S VOLLEYBALL Saint Francis edges Lions in EIVA semifinal upset BASEBALL Six Nittany Lions tallied an RBI and senior Jack Anderson tied a school record with his 22nd career save, as visiting Penn State rallied past Rut- gers and hung on for a 7-5 victory April 24. Rutgers jumped out to a four-run lead in the first inning, but Penn State (24-17, 9-6 Big Ten) scored the next seven runs in the second, third and fourth innings. The Scarlet Knights added a run in the fifth, but it was the final run scored in the game. In addition to extending his Penn State record for career appearances with his 91st, Anderson earned his career-high 10th save of the season to move within one of the school single-season record. SOFTBALL Penn State claimed its fifth Big Ten series victory with an 11-3 six-inning win over Iowa on April 24. Improving to 26-18 overall and 13-4 in the conference, the Nittany Lions tallied their 22nd game of the season with 10 or more hits and their eighth game scoring 10 or more runs. Furthermore, Penn State won its fifth Big Ten series, which is a program record; previous Nittany Lion squads had never won more than four conference series in a season. Freshman Madison Seifert earned her 10th victory of the season, throwing three innings in relief, while junior Mar- laina Laubach pitched three innings in the start. WOMEN'S LACROSSE The 14th- ranked Nittany Lions scored the final five goals of the game to defeat No. 12 Northwestern, 17-13, April 23 at Penn State Lacrosse Field. Five Lions scored multiple goals, an effort that was led by senior Madison Cyr with four goals and a game-high seven points. "We got today's win from a variety of areas," head coach Missy Doherty said after watching her team improve to 11-4 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play. "Emi Smith made some big saves. Then we got it from putting our shots away at the end of the game. It's good to see us capture that kind of momentum and make some big plays when it counted." MEN'S LACROSSE No. 17 Penn State was edged, 15-14, on the road by No. 19 Rutgers April 22 in a back-and-forth Big Ten outing. Junior Nick Aponte matched a career- high mark with four goals, adding one assist for five points for the Nittany Li- ons (7-6, 1-3 Big Ten). Freshman Grant Ament added two goals and a team-high three assists. "Rutgers is a very good team going from their defense to the offensive end, and I thought we provided them just enough of a crack to break it wide open," head coach Jeff Tambroni said. ■ N O T E B O O K

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