UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — No. 16 Penn State men’s volleyball swept Princeton 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-18) in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) Tournament championship on April 25 at Rec Hall at University Park campus. The Nittany Lions secured their fourth-straight EIVA Tournament title and the 38th in program history.
Penn State will face UC Irvine at 9 p.m. EST on May 1 at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California, in the regional round of the 2026 National Collegiate Men's Volleyball Championship. The Penn State-UC Irvine match will be aired on ESPN+. The winner will go on to face No. 1-seed UCLA in the regional final on May 2.
Penn State upped its record to 22-7 overall with its 11th-straight win and earned the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Princeton saw its four-match winning streak come to an end as it closed the season at 9-15 overall.
Sean Harvey, who was voted the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, hit .308 with 12 kills, six digs, five blocks, and one ace. He was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Owen Rose, who hit .909 with 10 kills and five blocks, and Jaxon Herr, who tallied 36 assists while leading the team to .398 hitting.
Head coach Mark Pavlik was named the Bob Sweeney Memorial Coach of the Year. Pavlik guided the team to a perfect 12-0 record in EIVA play this season as Penn State clinched the regular season title and hosting rights for the conference tournament. It was the 38th regular season title in program history. The Nittany Lions were ranked in every poll of the season and enter the postseason as the 16th-ranked team in the nation on a nine-match winning streak.
Pavlik has 714 career wins at the end of the regular season, which ranks as the third most in the history of collegiate men’s volleyball across all divisions. He is set to retire at the end of the current season.