Riverview grad Cal Fisher spearheads NCAA title drive for Penn State men's volleyball team

Once in a while, Penn State men’s volleyball coach Mark Pavlik likes to tease a couple of his players by comparing them to their more-accomplished mothers.

When sophomore Will Kuhns registered his first collegiate kill against Princeton in February, for example, Pavlik announced to the team after the match that Kuhns was now second all-time in kills on his family leaderboard. He was “only” 1,969 behind his mother, Katy (Wotus) Kuhns, an All-American at Gannon who amassed 1,970 career kills.

Riverview grad Cal Fisher also hears about his family history. The senior’s 125 aces rank fifth in Penn State history. But he is still more than 200 behind his mother, Charlotte, who holds Eastern Kentucky’s career ace record with 330. (He is, however, ahead of older sister Arden, a former standout at Robert Morris, in career aces.)

While Fisher might not catch his mother’s serving total, he is chasing something that would give him ultimate family bragging rights: an NCAA title. After making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season, Penn State returned most of its roster intact and entered Sunday’s match against Ohio State 14-3 (8-0 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) and ranked No. 3 in the nation.

Fisher, who played one season of high school volleyball at Penn Hills, has been a big part of the Nittany Lions’ success. He leads the EIVA in kills per set (3.55), total kills (199) and is second in aces per set (0.57).

At 6-foot-3, he isn’t the most physically imposing guy on the court. But with quick reflexes and a live arm, Fisher, Pavlik said, is the quintessential modern men’s volleyball player: relying on speed, athleticism and guile rather than raw power.

“That’s something Fish embraces,” said Pavlik, in his 28th season at Penn State. “He’s somebody who knows what his strengths are, and we have a setter in Cole Bogner who can take advantage of it.

“And people don’t understand how good he is defensively. He’s always in the right place at the right time.”

Said Fisher: “I think my game has improved immensely. I didn’t grow up with high school volleyball, and, getting here, I found some coaches who really could influence me and my game to be the best it can be. Even now we’re still improving on that and fine-tuning some things.”

Perhaps no one on the team knows Fisher better than fellow senior Brett Wildman. Wildman plays opposite Fisher on the Nittany Lions’ attack and has roomed with Fisher for the past two seasons.

Besides admiring Fisher’s culinary skills, Wildman appreciates his all-around game and his serving prowess in particular.

“His serve is pretty deadly,” Wildman said. “When you get him back (at the service line) maybe three times in a set, you know he’s going to make it tough on the other team and put us in good position to turn a point.”

Penn State has been turning plenty of points, particularly in conference play. Only one of its EIVA matches has gone beyond three sets: a 3-2 win over New Jersey Institute of Technology on Feb. 26. Fisher had 13 kills, four aces and nine digs in the match.

He also has risen to the occasion in other big matches. In the team’s signature win of the season, a 3-2 thriller at current No. 2 Long Beach State, Fisher had 15 kills, an ace and seven digs. Against current No. 1 UCLA on Jan. 21, Fisher had 16 kills and 11 digs in a closely contested four-set loss.

The ability to win tough matches combined with the team’s overall talent and experience are what give Fisher confidence Penn State can win the program’s second national title.

“I think a lot of it is just trusting what we already know how to do,” Fisher said. “We don’t try to do anything too spectacular. We just stay with what’s worked in the past. We don’t try to overcomplicate things.

“We definitely have what it takes. Now we have to prove it.”