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Penn State men’s volleyball will battle Saint Francis for a home/away series on Friday and Saturday.
SERIES HISTORY
• Penn State and Saint Francis will play for the 60th and 61st time in a series that began in 1994.
• The Nittany Lions are 56-3 all-time against the Red Flash, with all three losses coming during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
• Penn State has won 17 straight matches in the series. Four of those wins came in five sets.
• The Nittany Lions are 30-2 at home and 24-1 on the road against the Red Flash.
• Matthew Luoma has hit .458 while averaging 4.50 kills/set and adding four total aces over two career matches against Saint Francis.
SERIES HISTORY VS. SAINT FRANCIS (LAST 10)
Year Winner Score Location
2021 Penn State 3-2 Rec Hall
2021 Penn State 3-0 Rec Hall
2022 Penn State 3-0 Rec Hall
2022 Penn State 3-0 Loretto, Pa.
2023 Penn State 3-2 Loretto, Pa.
2023 Penn State 3-0 Rec Hall
2024 Penn State 3-2 Loretto, Pa.
2024 Penn State 3-2 Rec Hall
2025 Penn State 3-0 Loretto, Pa.
2025 Penn State 3-0 Rec Hall
PENN STATE VS. NEC
• Penn State is 60-3 all-time against current members of the NEC.
• The Nittany Lions have played four of the seven teams -- Saint Francis (56-3), Daemen (2-0), FDU (1-0), and Manhattan (1-0).
• Penn State is 1-0 against the NECA team this season with a 3-0 win over Manhattan in Rec Hall South Gym.
• The Nittany Lions' last loss to an NEC team came to Saint Francis in 2017.
Match Notes
OPENING NOTES
• Penn State continues the 50th season in program history when it plays a two-match home/away series with Saint Francis this week.
• The matches will be the final between the two teams before the Red Flash transition to Division III next season (unless the teams meet in the NCAA Tournament), possibly halting a series that includes 59 matches since 1994.
• Mark Pavlik (Penn State) and Mike Rumbaugh (Saint Francis) have squared off as head coaches in 52 of the matches between the teams.
• Penn State is 62-8 at Rec Hall since the start of the 2021 season.
PAVLIK/RUMBAUGH BY THE NUMBERS
• 60 combined seasons as head coach
• 1,035 combined wins
• 14 combined conference Coach of the Year awards
TOP OF THE CONFERENCE
• Penn State leads all EIVA teams in assists/set (11.25), blocks/set (2.48), and kills/set (12.00).
• Individually, Ryan Merk ranks first in the EIVA in digs/set (2.14), Owen Rose is first in blocks/set (1.10), and Gaige Gabriel is first in hitting percentage (.372).
PAVLIK’S LAST SEASON
• Mark Pavlik announced prior to the season that this season, his 32nd as the head coach of Penn State, will be his last.
• Pavlik is just the third head coach in the 50 seasons of Penn State men's volleyball.
PAVLIK’S RESUME
• 2008 National Champion
• 1x AVCA National Coach of the Year
• 25 EIVA Tournament titles
• 27 EIVA regular season title
• 10x EIVA Coach of the Year
• 698 wins ranks fourth in the history of collegiate men’s volleyball and first amongst current coaches.
WHO CAN ACE MERK?
• Just one player has managed to get an ace on a serve to Penn State libero Ryan Merk this season. The redshirt senior has had 114 serves come his way.
• The lone ace credited against Merk came on a 73 mph rip by Lewis's Gauthier Brozak.
IN THE POLL
• Penn State was ranked No. 14 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll and has been ranked in each of the first four polls of this season.
• The Nittany Lions have appeared in the Coaches Poll for a total of 613 of the 649 weeks since the rankings debuted in 1986. That stands as the fifth most of any program in the nation.
MILESTONE STARTS
• Redshirt senior Ryan Merk (libero) made his 100th-consecutive start in Penn State’s match against Hawaii on Saturday at Rec Hall.
• Redshirt senior Owen Rose has started 99 of the 109 matches of his career, giving way to a teammate celebrating Senior Day during his redshirt freshman season. Rose is expected to reach 100 career starts against Saint Francis at Rec Hall on Friday.
SCOUTING SAINT FRANCIS
• Saint Francis is 4-3 overall following a pair of wins over Roberts Wesleyan last week. The Red Flash won the first match in five sets and the second match in four sets.
• The Red Flash tied with Daemen atop the 2026 NEC Preseason Coaches Poll. The Red Flash have won three consecutive regular season titles in the conference.
• Brady Stump ranks first in the NEC in aces/set (0.46).
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL VS. HAWAII (01/31/26)MEN’S VOLLEYBALL VS. HAWAII (01/31/26)
Men’s Volleyball
January 31, 2026
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL VS. HAWAII (01/31/26)