Time To Party Like It's 1998! Princeton Secures EIVA Championship In Five-Set Thriller

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On Thursday as Sam Shweisky was being pulled away from friends and family to do the postgame press conference, he said "I'm sorry, I'm use to going second at the press conference as the loser of this game."

Tonight, he was fine with going second because …. he was an EIVA Champion.

For the first time since 1998, the Princeton Tigers won the EIVA crown in a five-set thriller (28-26, 22-25, 25-18, 20-25, 15-13) over the Penn State Nittany Lions at Dillon Gym on Saturday night.

We're going to party like it's ... 1998!

We're @EIVAVolleyball Champions!!! pic.twitter.com/ngvuek09tM
— PrincetonVolley (@PrincetonVolley) April 21, 2019

The team's reaction in the video was 21 years in the making as George Huhmann produced the biggest kill of his career, the final point in the fifth set. What a week it was for the Huhmann as he was named the EIVA Player of the Year and tonight put the exclamation point on a wonderful season as he earned the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

He finished with 25 kills and a .426 attack percentage while Parker Dixon produced 15 kills and a .489 attack percentage. Joe Kelly had 51 assists in the victory. All three were named to the All-Tournament squad.

The first stanza was an appetizer for the rest of the contest as the Tigers took it, 28-26. Princeton faced set point (24-23) which led to Shweisky calling timeout. From there, the two squads had three ties before kills by Greg Luck and Dixon gave Princeton the win.

The second set was a tight battle with neither team leading by more than two tallies until an attack error gave Penn State a 22-19 advantage. The Tigers closed within two, 24-22, but a service error tied the game at one set each.

Up one, 13-12, in set three, Princeton rolled off 8-of-12 to jump ahead, 21-16. Following a Lions' kill, the Tigers ran off four of the final five points to take a 2-1 set lead.

Already up two, three straight pushed the Nittany Lions in front, 17-12, as the fourth frame went on. Three of four points from the Tigers made the Lions (23-19) call timeout. A kill by Penn State's Brett Wildman extended the contest to a fifth and deciding set.

In the final stanza, the two teams exchanged rallies and kept close before a service ace from Kendall Ratter provided the home unit with a 14-11 margin. The Lions got within one, but Huhmann's kill sent Dillon Gym into a frenzy.

"The legacy (of the program) was based around the 1998 Championship and to be able to add to that and continue that legacy is really special," said Shweisky. "It feels a lot bigger than us and we're happy to be here for this moment, but it's really special to be a part of something this big. We're honored."

Wildman had 24 kills to lead the visiting group. He was named to the All-Tournament team with George Mason's Hayden Wagner and the three Tigers.

The 2019 NC men's volleyball championship bracket will be announced Sunday, April 21 at 1 p.m. ET in a selection show on NCAA.com. Seven teams will be selected into the field, with the two top-ranked schools being placed in the national semifinals. The five other schools will first compete in an opening round structure.

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